UPDATED1:05PM SEPTEMBER 5, 2023,FIRST PUBLISHED AT12:35PM SEPTEMBER 5, 2023
Australia's best business newsletter.Get the edge with AM and PM briefings, plus breaking news alerts in your inbox.
Sponsored content
Torque Metals is in prime position to capitalise on the reboot of one of WA’s most sought-after lithium mines, Bald Hill, with an exclusive option to secure lithium-bearing ground just 600m away.
READ NEXT
There’s been a flurry of activity around the purchase of the Bald Hill lithium-tantalum mine in the past week, with mining supermajorGlencore lobbing a reported $1.8 billion bidto buy and re-list the indebted owner of the mine.
Yet, as *reported yesterday, it looks likeChris Ellison’s MinRes (ASX:MIN)has come out on top to be the miner to rejuvenate the project – and Torque’s New Dawn lithium project is right next door.
Torque Metals (ASX:TOR)has inked a deal to acquire a collection of gold, nickel and lithium-rich tenements – to be renamed Penzance – near its Paris gold camp in the Tier-1 Goldfields mining jurisdiction.
This includes New Dawn, an unmined lithium and tantalum occurrence on granted mining leases, 600m along strike of the established Bald Hill lithium-tantalum operation.
“Our footprint now spans over 500sq km, bolstered by 12 mining, four prospecting and 12 exploration licences,” Torque MD Cristian Moreno says.
“In the wake of remarkable and solid gold discoveries at the Paris gold systems, Torque is strategically expanding its presence in the region, whilst also venturing into the critical minerals domain with the acquisition of New Dawn pre-Native Title mining licenses adjacent to the Bald Hill which hosts a 26.5Mt @ 1% Li2O spodumene mine.”
New Dawn
The New Dawn lithium project consists of two mining licences that were historically explored for tantalum back in 2001, which culminated in a resource of 1.04Mt @ 160ppm Ta2O5 down to 30m below surface.
Torque says lithium exploration was largely ignored, with the asset never assayed for lithium itself.
Yet early exploration conducted by Torque in August identified multiple outcropping pegmatites and rock chip samples grading up to an eye-watering 6 per cent Li2O.
The explorer is now mobilising for a 20-hole diamond drilling campaign across 2000m this month to test highly prospective targets for lithium mineralisation.
The Paris project is located just 12km southeast of Gold Fields’ St Ives gold mining operation and 10km east of Karora Resources’ Higginsville gold mine and has remained vastly underexplored, with historic drilling “generally restricted” down to just 50m below surface, Torque says.
Recent diamond drilling at Torque’s Paris Gold Camp shows strong gold intersections of up to 185g/t Au around the historic Paris open pit.
The explorer believes there’s extensive mineralisation along a 2.5km strike and a Plan of Work (POW) has been approved for the next phase of drilling which the explorer says aims to spatially increase the gold mineralised zones.
Capital raise
Torque is raising $4 million via placement at 12c per share – a narrow discount of about 2.7 per cent to the company’s five-day VWAP and is supported by existing shareholders, institutional investors and the board itself.
In two tranches, the company will issue 23,084,260 shares to raise $2.77 million as part of Tranche 1, and a further $1.23 million by issuing 10,249,073 shares in Tranche 2 through support from Euroz Hartley.
Mineral Resources (MinRes) is looking to snap up the shuttered WA lithium mine from Alita Resources, but there’s a catch.
Alita went into administration in 2019 when the price of lithium fell below a sustainable level for the mine.
The company was then set to be purchased by Austroid, a US-based lithium miner. However, this deal wasblockedby Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers earlier this year on advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).
The decision was owing to Austroid’s ties with Chinese lithium battery maker Sichuan, which FIRB determined could potentially harm Australia’s economic interests. The director of Austroid Australia, Mike Que, is the son of a major stakeholder in Sichuan.
As recently as last week, rumours were swirling that Glencore had launched an under the table offer to acquire all the debt in Alita with the aim of relisting the company for up to $1.8 billion.
Then days ago, it was revealed that the mine was set to be sold to an unnamed buyer. That buyer turned out to beMinRes.
MinRes has entered into animplementation agreementwith Alita’s administrators, McGrathNicol, for the acquisition of Bald Hill. However, the administrator must first successfully apply to the Supreme Court of WA to place Alita into liquidation.
“The outcome of applications in the Supreme Court is currently uncertain with no guarantee that the transaction will be able to proceed, and details are currently subject to commercial confidentiality between transaction parties,” MinRes said.
If the company passes this hurdle, MinRes will be able to pay out Alita’s debt and acquire the lithium asset.
“It is reported that the lithium mine operates at a loss… with profits transferred overseas via an offtake agreement with a Hong Kong-registered entity, Yihe Cleantech Material Limited,” MinRes said.
“It has been alleged that this offtake agreement has also led to an under-payment of state royalties.
“MinRes’ successful acquisition of the Bald Hill mine will ensure that the mine is being operated by an experienced Australian ASX listed lithium miner, and any profits are generated and taxes and royalties paid in Australia to the benefit of Australian taxpayers.”
TOR Price at posting:
34.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
It's a bright New Dawn for Torque. Picture: Getty Images
The New Dawn (foreground) and Bald Hill (background) projects
