GTI Resources (ASX: GTR) has finished its aircore drilling program at the Niagara Gold Project ahead of schedule.

 

The Niagara Gold Project is located ~6 km southwest of Kookynie in the central goldfields of WA and comprises one granted exploration licence, E40/ 342 and six contiguous prospecting licence applications including existing applications, P40/1506, P40/1515, P40/1516 and P40/1517 plus the recently acquired P40/1513 and P40/1518.

 

This region is starting to attract exploration attention and dollars, which has given GTR momentum to drill test its own ground here.

 

Those who have followed activity in the region will know Genesis Minerals Ltd (ASX: GMD) acquired a 248km² tenement package at Kookynie that includes 15km of strike length and a JORC Indicated and Inferred Resource of 414,000oz. GMD’s Greater Ulysses Project in this region holds 1.28Moz, and the company is currently capped at $68.5M.

 

Metalicity Ltd (ASX: MCT) is also located in the region, neighbouring GTR. Its highly successful drilling campaign earlier this year, saw MCT gain almost 250% after hitting “spectacular” high grade results from first assays at Kookynie in its joint venture (JV) with Nex Metals Exploration Ltd (ASX: NME).

 

MCT’s success hints at the potential of GTR’s WA ground, which is only circa 2km north of GTR’s project. MCT has a 50% interest in its Kookynie project, while GTR has 100% ownership.

 

The news comes just a week after the company received encouraging assay results from the recently completed second auger soil sampling program.

 

The recent Aircore drill campaign targeted six of the eight significant gold in soil anomalies identified within exploration Licence E40/342.

 

Drilling of the targeted geochemical anomalies has intersected quartz veining in a number of drill holes at predicted positions.

 

The intersected veins are occasionally associated with pyrite selvages and as fracture fill and silicification.

 

The relationship between the geochemical anomalies and the intersection of quartz veins

will be established once assay results have been received.

 

Drilling is also providing guidance on the lithology and structure within the drilled areas         including silicified faults, which complements the structural interpretation.

Lithologies intersected included basalt, granitoids, ultramafics and metasediments.

 

The geological and structural model will be updated and interpreted in the coming weeks and then incorporated with the multielement geochemistry when received.

 

Drilling was concluded ahead of schedule with 52 holes completed at an average depth of 45 metres for 2,321 metres total.

 

Initial gold analysis is expected in mid to the third week of October and multi-element geochemistry soon after.

 

An RC rig is scheduled to start testing bedrock targets during late October following receipt of results from the current round of Aircore drilling.

A fine time to accelerate exploration

It would be highly beneficial for GTR given the current Australian dollar gold price if this accelerated and extensive exploration campaign were to shape the way for a swift move to early-stage production.

 

While some corners of the investment community are focusing on gold’s retracement from about US$1950 per ounce to US$1860 per ounce over the last month, what appears to have gone unnoticed is the sharp depreciation of the Australian dollar against the US dollar that has occurred in the last week.

 

If we look at the last few weeks in isolation, the Australian dollar gold price was $2667 per ounce on 17 September when the price was US$1950 per ounce.

 

As we write, the gold price has rebounded in the last 24 hours to hit US$1890 per ounce, and with the Australian dollar sitting at US$0.707 the Australian dollar gold price is $2673 per ounce, implying a slight premium to the US dollar price that prevailed on 17 September.

 

The average operating production costs are in the vicinity of about $1350 per ounce, implying a hefty margin of about $1300 per ounce at current spot rates.

 

Consequently, GTR is very much a right place/right time story, particularly given the region’s history of yielding high-grade mineralisation that can significantly drive down the cost of production.

Watch Tony Sage, Non-Executive Director of European Lithium (ASX:EUR | FRA:PF8 | VSE:ELI) and Jared Sim, Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of StockPal in this engaging Q&A with the following questions:

0:10 – What is your business about?
1:19 – How did your company cope with the COVID-19 pandemic?
1:56 – What projects are you currently working on?
3:05 – When do you target commercialization for the company?
4:04 – What is your firm’s competitive advantage?
6:00 – How are you currently engaging with your investors?

Visit European Lithium’s website to learn more about their story: https://europeanlithium.com/

Email [email protected] if you are or represent a listed-company and is keen to be in our interviews.

Want to be on the list next time this company raises capital? Open an account with Fresh Equities and start exploring capital raises – freshequities.com

Elon Musk is pushing the vehicle manufacture industry to seek out more high purity manganese to power its vehicles.

As the world transitions to electric vehicle (EV) dominance, manganese will play a key role in EV production.

At the Tesla’s Battery Day 2020, held today, Musk said Tesla’s next generation EV batteries will contain 1/3 manganese.

“It’s relatively straight forward to do a cathode that’s 2/3 Nickel 1/3 Manganese, which will allow us to make 50% more cell volume with the same amount of Nickel,” Musk said.

A well located, ASX company could be one of the beneficiaries.

Euro Manganese Inc (ASX: EMN) is sitting on the largest manganese resource in Europe, right in the thick of the action when it comes to battery markets in Europe, where there is no local manganese supply.

EMN has the largest manganese resource in Europe and will recycle waste to produce highly refined manganese metal and salts (no “mining” involved).

Furthermore, it is strategically located in the Czech Republic with 6+ large battery factories located just 200 to 500kms away.

Tesla will need to source its manganese from a local supplier to keep costs manageable.

Telsa’s under construction Gigafactory in Germany will be the most advanced high-volume electric vehicle production plant in the world and the company plans to produce 500,000 electric vehicles at the Grünheide site starting from the European summer of 2021.

Europe is at the heart of the EV revolution and Tesla’s announcement today could prove to have a snowball effect on European manufacturers who are likely to follow in the US company’s footsteps in seeking out a high-grade manganese product and localising cathode production.

Automakers like Volkswagen, General Motors, and Ford are already pouring billions of dollars into EV development and making a huge investment in this space as they fight over the growing consumer market.

According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, the share of chargeable cars rose to 7.2% percent in the April-June quarter from 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020.

The changing landscape in Europe, coincides with a scaling down of subsidies in China. Sales of EVs in Europe are projected to exceed one million units in 2020 and to grow rapidly in the years to come.

It comes as the EU prepares to ‘recharge’ its climate action plan and increase its climate targets to achieve a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a move welcomed by clean transport group Transport & Environment (T&E).

EMN well placed

EMN intends to produce battery grade manganese by reprocessing tailings in the Czech Republic.

The following map illustrates the proliferation of battery plants and the extensive network of automotive and battery manufacturers in mainland Europe and the location of EMN’s Chvaletice Manganese Project (CMP) in the Czech Republic – relative to the major European EV and battery manufacturing hub.

The company will be waste recycling from historic mines and delivering high purity manganese to EU battery makers.

EMN plans to re-process Europe’s largest manganese deposit, which is hosted in historic mine tailings in the Czech Republic, in order to produce high-purity manganese products (HPM) in an economically, socially and environmentally-sound manner.

EMN expect to become the only primary producer of high-purity manganese in the EU, where 100% of manganese requirements are currently imported.

Currently, the bulk of the world’s production of manganese ore occurs in South Africa, China, Australia, Brazil, India and Gabon.

Several prospective customers have expressed interest in procuring high-purity manganese products from the project, and in conducting supply-chain qualification of the products of the proposed Chvaletice demonstration plant.

Attracted by the strategic European position of Chvaletice, the incomparable low environmental footprint of the project (no mining or new solid waste generation), and the exceptional purity of the products that Euro Manganese has produced in previous pilot plant trials, five memorandums of understanding have been signed to date with major customers. These are intended to evolve into long-term offtake agreements.

Musk’s announcement today, could be a game changing one for manganese producers including the up and coming EMN.