Welcome to a roundup of some of our financing, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com over the last week. To keep up to date with all the latest headlines, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Financing and M&A
Over the last seven days, Peak Rare Earths Limited (ASX: PEK) has announced it has signed a non-binding term sheet with Shenghe Resources Holding Co., Ltd. covering an investment, funding, and development solution for the Ngualla Rare Earth Project.
Shenghe is to provide a fully funded solution with no requirement for Peak to contribute further equity funding towards the development of the Ngualla Project.
Dr. Russell Scrimshaw, executive chairman of Peak, commented, “This marks another major milestone for Peak, Mamba Minerals, and the Ngualla Project. With the benefit of strong support from our partners, Shenghe, and the Government of Tanzania, the Ngualla Project is positioned to become the world’s next rare earth operation. Importantly, the Ngualla Project will benefit from a fully funded solution, which will avoid the need for further equity funding from Peak shareholders.”
KEFI Gold and Copper (AIM: KEFI) has provided an update on the company’s Tulu Kapi Gold Project in Ethiopia.
The company has announced that last week it received confirmation from project co-lender African Finance Corporation Limited (AFC) of its preliminary approval. This follows further site visits during July by the co-lenders’ security consultants. As previously reported, the other co-lender, Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank Ltd (TDB) has already granted final approval, which was also ratified by its shareholder-board in February 2024. Final approvals from AFC are expected in the next month or so, as the project is ratified in line with the co-lender’s internal practices.
New exploration and development
White Cliff Minerals Limited (ASX: WCN) has commenced work at its Rae copper, silver, and gold project in Nunavut. Initial visual observations across all sample sites have confirmed numerous vein systems of chalcocite dominant mineralization across significant strike lengths.
The company has reported the identification multiple styles of copper mineralization, indicating potential for district-scale mineralization. At Cu-Tar, massive chalcocite veining has also been observed, while sedimentary-hosted copper and replacement mineralization have been seen at HALO. Additionally, native copper within vesicular basalt flow tops has been discovered at Kilauea. Previous high-grade historical locations have been located, and samples have been taken within an expanded vicinity. At all priority targets, the identifiable strike length has significantly increased.
Meanwhile, Elevate Uranium Limited (ASX: EL8 | OTC: ELVUF) has provided an update on the extensive exploration and pre-development programmes in progress on its Namibian and Australian project portfolios.
The company currently has five reverse circulation (RC) drill rigs operating in Namibia. Drilling is currently focused on expansion and increasing the level of certainty around the company’s high-priority projects at Koppies, Hirabeb, and Capri. Three rigs are working at the flagship Koppies project on infill drilling to convert the existing inferred resource to the higher confidence level of an indicated resource. The Hirabeb and Capri projects have one rig each working on maiden resource delineation and exploration programmes.
Each rig typically completes approximately 25 holes per week for a weekly total of 125 holes between the five rigs. This scale of drilling reflects the large strike length of the mineralized envelopes of these projects and the shallow nature of the drill holes, typically 28m.
Drilling results
Finally, Atlantic Lithium Limited (AIM: ALL | ASX: A11) has announced an increase to the JORC (2012) compliant MRE at the company’s flagship Ewoyaa Lithium Project in Ghana, West Africa.
Neil Herbert, executive chairman of Atlantic Lithium, said, “We are pleased to report an increase in the MRE for the Ewoyaa Lithium Project to 36.8Mt at 1.24% Li2O, which reaffirms Ewoyaa’s status as one of the leading hard rock lithium projects. The increase follows the limited drilling programme completed recently, which was focused on supporting our mine planning activities rather than expanding the resource base, but through which we identified the Dog-Leg target, which has added near-surface tonnes to the Ewoyaa Resource. We are pleased to see this lucky strike at DogLeg contributing an additional circa 891,000t to the enlarged 36.8Mt at 1.24% Li2O resource.”
The total MRE for the company’s flagship Ewoyaa Lithium Project has increased to 36.8Mt at 1.24% Li2O, reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012). 81% of the total resource now in the higher confidence measured and indicated categories (3.7Mt at 1.37% in the measured category, 26.1Mt at 1.24% in the indicated category and 7.0Mt @ 1.15% Li₂O in the inferred category).
