Battery Age Minerals (ASX:BM8) has got the wheels turning on a systematic sampling campaign at Bleiberg and Hochboir in Austria as it looks to determine the potential for germanium recovery from historical mine tailings.
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This sampling program will identify and – so the company plans – quantify germanium concentrations in the dumps and historical tailings at the Austrian project, many of which were left by centuries of lead and zinc mining.
Hotcopper understands historical documents point to grades as high as 1,500 g/t Ge.
The company’s program has the potential to “unlock significant secondary recovery opportunities,” Battery Age CEO Nigel Broomham said today.
“Historical records show extensive mine workings and dumps across our landholdings,” he explained, which is particularly relevant because “exceptional” germanium grades had previously been picked up at Beliberg and Hochibir.
To take advantage of the concentrations they expect to find, Battery Age is running a three-stage plan, starting with digging through more records at Geosphere Australia.
Once they’ve poured over the “comprehensive” mining documents and geological literature, focus will turn to a 330sqkm exploration run. Following that will be a geo-focused field campaign across any identified targets.
All that will then be wrapped up in an analysis report due by Q3 2025.
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“As germanium becomes an increasingly strategic mineral, we believe Battery Age is well-positioned to potentially play a key role in providing secure, European-based supply,” Mr Broomham said as plans get underway.
That potential will, of course, be further clarified if all these plans come to fruition.
To that end, Battery Age is also preparing to run metallurgical testing on any interesting tailings materials the company digs up in coming weeks.
BM8 last sold at 5.8cps after a 1.75% rise through Friday trade.
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