MetalsGrove we’re looking to raise $7 million Australian in this float now and we’re getting towards the back end of that float, and it’s exciting – we’re just trying to top it up now and meet that maximum target.
Our lithium is in tier one lithium country up in the Pilbara – right next door to Pilbara Minerals and and all those other big players in there. So lots of options there to build on the package we’ve got and bring great value to our shareholders going forward. Similarly with the rare earths, we’re in a unique place in the Northern Territory up just near Alice Springs there – really in an elephant country as we say – really untested but all that early work is suggesting some fantastic opportunities – very prospective ground for that – so well and truly proven. On the manganese front, right up there in the whole Woody Woody district there, which is well renowned around the world for quality manganese delivery into the marketplace. So I’m pretty excited.
I’m really busting to get out there our team and get on the ground and bring home some real results and get some outcomes.
The lithium project which is in Pilbara Western Australia. It’s been historically mined as a tin mine and we are now focusing on it as a tin mine and lithium mine.
Also this lithium project is well connected to world-class infrastructure – there’s tier one mining companies in very close proximity to this project area – Pilbara Minerals, Mineral Resources and recent developer Global Lithium.
The rare earth project which is in Northern Territory, close to Alice Springs, it’s about 80km from Alice Springs. It historically has been mined explored for heavy minerals and copper gold – now we are focusing on rare earths with the recent discoveries around the project area and there is some sample it’s leading to the rare earth exploration. It’s a high potential project.
Then the manganese project which is back in Western Australia. It’s in the Pilbara as well. It’s very close to the existing historical mine – our Woody Woody mine – it’s very close to that mine as well.
The our beauty of our projects, all our projects have historical workings which produced significant amount of mineral resources.
Then we got another exciting project, a copper gold project, Edwards Creek – it’s in the Northern Territory. And again it is close to Alice Springs. It’s well connected to infrastructure, and it’s off the Plenty Highway. The access to this project is not an issue so you can it can access it all seasons.
Then it’s been drilled and explored for copper and gold 50 years ago. There is about 4 meters of 2.5% copper, and 18 meters of minimization. A very exciting project.
We have another exciting project – it is in big elephant country – a base metal project – a base metal rare earths project work – Box Hole. Box Hole has been explored by BHP in the past and other big companies. They have drilled over the twelve thousand meters in the project area. We got significant grades and a number of outcrops.
I have about 35 years experience in the resource game. I have worked all through Australia, Africa and South America and North America. In relation to this particular company, I’ve had the luxury of working in the whole lithium sphere with Sons of Gwalia.
The startup of my lithium exposure – I’ve worked with Consolidated Minerals with the manganese exposure. Copper I’ve worked for a number of companies over the years involving copper and similarly gold which is part of our suite. But also importantly I’ve worked at the high end as much as at the operational levels. I was the MD for Peak Resources – again rare earths – and the CEO for Sandfire Resources doing the DeGrussa and the broader business development with Sandfire, so early days when we were looking at the Botswana deposit – so all very exciting stuff that brings great experience to this board and this particular company MetalsGrove.
In terms of Sean our MD, Sean is a geologist and a mining engineer. He’s got some great credentials in a number of finds in the past – particularly around lithium. You’ll see looking up on the social media side of things, they’ll see his experience there up there in the Pilbara, having been there in the early days and having a team there himself and developing some of those well-known deposits – like the Pilgangoora Minerals group there. He was part of that early founding group. So from a geological point of view he’s absolutely all over the subject matter that we’re addressing – so I’m really keen working with Sean on this project going forward.
Our third board member Haidong Chi brings another perspective to the board and into the business. HD as we know him as – he’s an entrepreneur and a businessman – and he’s got great interests in iron ore here in Western Australia in the midwest and up in the Kimberley. So he’s been involved in the mining sector for quite some time. He is also is a large shareholder in the company, so supporting us through that initially and ongoing as well.
The majority of funds will be used for exploration activities especially two key projects – the lithium project in Western Australia and the rare rare earth project in Northern Territory. We will be spending more than fifty percent of our funds in these two projects – to add value to the projects and shareholder value.
Currently we are doing desktop reviews and interpretation with technical experts. And also we are planning for a site sampling program and we are collecting all the historical geophysics and completing the interpretation of interfaces. Upon completion of these two, then we will start drilling the lithium project and rare earth project in the calendar year 2022 4th quarter.
There’s many facets to this – it’s the challenge of getting a company up and running hard. But really it’s also the metal sector that we’re involved in – lithium, rare earths, manganese, copper – these are all green metals in the renewable battery space and for me that’s really exciting because this is about where the industry is changing and evolving.
It’s almost parallel what’s going on the ESG component alongside – so they go “hand and fist”. But really from a business point of view it’s also managing the downstream markets – because that’s evolving so quickly. So players have to be on their toes and running harder – understanding and strategizing and being ahead of the market to meet it and get the opportunities.
So i think with the team we have got here, our ability to do that and the networks around the world is just first class and i think we can really do some great things with this company going forward – and for that I’m excited. That’s what gets me up out of bed – I’m running hard every day.
