Ann: Karibib Lithium Project - Encouraging Rock C, page-29

re: Ann: Karibib Lithium Project - Encouragin... Article in today's Age

BLACK Fire Energy was a company not worth knowing. But it is a different case with its reincarnation as a minerals exploration company, a process that included the name change late last year to Black Fire Minerals. It has been recapitalised and sports a new board and management team, headed by geologist Simon Rigby who, up until July 2007, was exploration manager for Australia and Papua New Guinea for the mighty Barrick Gold.

Since last year's effective reverse takeover, Black Fire has secured a lithium project in Namibia and a gold play in the Albany-Fraser gold-belt in Western Australia, home to the 5 million-ounce Tropicana discovery of the AngloGold Ashanti/Independence venture.

A drilling program at the lithium project is under way and is likely to be followed by the drilling of the Torquata gold prospect in Western Australia about May. The programs are fully funded, too, with Black Fire holding about $5.7 million in cash at last count. Punters don't need Garimpeiro to tell them lithium is all the rage as a ''green'' metal, with applications in batteries for hybrid and electric cars, as well as laptops and mobile phones.

Garimpeiro's favourite is the Mystique gold prospect in Western Australia. Rigby was working for Homestake in the 1990s when a large, discrete and coherent gold calcrete soil anomaly was outlined, with that work pre-dating the one outlined by AngloGold/Independence that led to the Tropicana discovery.

Black Fire has a theory that the bedrock source for the gold anomaly is south-east of where most of the previous exploration has been done. A hit from the potential ''source'' area would fire up interest in the stock, that's for sure. The stock closed on Friday at 13.5? for a market cap of about $15 million.

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