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Octava Minerals Limited (ASX:OCT) (“Octava” or the “Company”), a Western Australia focused explorer of the new energy metals Lithium, Nickel, PGM’s and gold, is pleased to report that it has signed a binding but conditional agreement to purchase 100% of the shares in Byro Mining Pty Ltd (“Byro”), the owner of the Byro REE & Lithium Project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, from the shareholders of Byro.
Highlights
- Octava has signed a binding conditional agreement for the acquisition of 100% of the issued capital of Byro Mining Pty Ltd, which holds the Byro sedimentary REE and Li project.
- Low-cost entry into potential new source of critical minerals.
- Previous exploration suggests a possible large-scale REE / Li deposit with potential for additional critical minerals.
- GSWA soil sampling identified widespread anomalous halo of REO (Ce, La, Sc & Y only) & Li2O over 40km of strike length.
- Historic drilling over 25km of strike show thick intersections (>90m) of anomalous REE and lithium in black shale.
- Octava will commence material characterisation and extraction studies of critical minerals on existing samples.
Octava’s Managing Director Bevan Wakelam stated,” We are pleased to have secured an agreement to acquire this project. Previous work has identified the Permian black shales of the Byro sub basin to be metalliferous, with anomalous REE & lithium that is laterally extensive and over large thicknesses in historic drilling.
With a low-cost entry point into this highly prospective project, Octava will investigate the potential for Australia’s first, large scale sedimentary deposit of REE & lithium. Metal extraction from black shales is a proven, low-cost technology and we will immediately get to work on material characterisation and initial mineral extraction testwork and further drilling.”
About the Byro Project
The Byro Project is located on the Byro Plains of the Gascoyne Region, Western Australia, 220km south-east of Carnarvon and 650 km north of Perth. It consists of two granted Exploration Licences – E 09/2673 and E 09/2674 – totalling 798 km2. The Byro Project also has Native Title agreements in place. Nearby infrastructure includes accessibility to a commercial port (Geraldton) and power from the NW gas pipeline and future potential access to Western Australian government proposed green energy sites.
Figure 1. Project location map & Byro tenements.
The Byro project lies at the centre of the Byro Sub-basin of the Carnarvon Basin. The sub-basin is Permo-Carboniferous and is approximately 100km by 150km in size and up to 3km in depth. The basin is bound to the east by the Precambrian Yilgarn Craton margin, and to the west by extensions of the Darling Fault. The Permian period is well known for the development of extensive hydrothermal activity, with SEDEX / sediment-hosted polymetallic deposits best known in Europe (Kupfershiefer, Poland and Germany).
GSWA regional soil sampling (4km by 4km sample spacing) identified large anomalous halos of REO up to 540ppm & Li2O up to 180ppm over 40km in strike length and 20km wide. (see Figure 2 below). The tenement area also contains five wide-spaced historic RC drillholes over a ~ 25km strike length and four ~ 1.5km spaced, historic petroleum boreholes (see Figure 1 above).
The historic assay results from the 5 RC drillholes have shown anomalous lithium (200 - 430 ppm Li2O) over large thickness (30 to 90m thick; see table 1A in JORC table in Appendix 2) and are from near surface. Selected drill cutting samples from the petroleum wells North Ballythana Core holes 1 to 4 (stored in the GSWA core Library in Perth) have also been geochemically analysed, returning similar anomalous lithium grades. The sampling has also identified anomalous REE, with samples > 500 ppm TREO and > 600 ppm V205 (see table 2A and 2B in and JORC table in Appendix 2).
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