BMG Resources is planning to beef up its holdings in Western Australia’s West Arunta region – known as elephant country for niobium and rare earths – with an option to nab a 90 per cent interest in 1470 square kilometres of ground.
The northern boundary of the three-licence package sits just 30km from Encounter Resources’ Crean project and its mineral resource of 282 million tonnes at 0.54 per cent niobium oxide and 0.17 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from just 4m depth.
Further leveraging the compelling nearology, BMG says its ground under option, which has been named the Dragon niobium-rare earths project, abuts WA1 Resources’ ground and is just 20km from that company’s Luni high-grade niobium discovery that made headlines last Friday.
WA1 reported Luni niobium pentoxide assays going as high as 9m at 3.7 per cent from 63m, 12m at 3.4 per cent from 45m, 17m at 2.2 per cent from 86m and 80m at 1.5 per cent from 86m to the end of the hole. And those results are not isolated, with the best historical assays from Luni including 61m at 2.6 per cent niobium pentoxide from 59m including 31m grading 4.6 per cent from 61m, 50m at 2 per cent from 65m to the end of the hole and 97m at 1.7 per cent from 35m.
With Luni shaping up as what BMG describes as a world-class niobium deposit, it is now on the hunt to create something similar with its latest land grab.
BMG Resources non-executive chairman John Prineas said: “Since listing on the ASX in February 2022 following an IPO of its shares at $0.20 per share, WA1 has been spectacularly rewarded for its exploration success at the West Arunta with its share price now at $10. The West Arunta is under-explored elephant country where exploration investments have potential to deliver remarkable returns for investors."
Prineas said BMG’s preliminary review of the tenements under option confirms they are prospective for carbonatite-hosted niobium and other rare earths mineralisation.
And WA1 is far from alone in its success in West Arunta, with the latest batch of assays revealed from Encounter’s Crean deposit last month going as high as 6m at 1.1 per cent niobium pentoxide and 0.56 per cent TREO from 72m and 2m at 1.03 per cent niobium pentoxide and 0.11 per cent TREO from 188m to the end of the hole.
Mining giant Rio Tinto is also sniffing around in the area with two chunks of tenements – one abutting the southern margin of BMG’s Dragon project and the other about 30km to the west where it holds ground in its own right and in a joint venture with Tali Resources.
At Dragon, BMG says coincident gravity and magnetic anomalies have been identified and may represent mineralised carbonatites similar to those seen in drilling by WA1. Management says it has planned a follow-up investigation of the anomalies.
Although the West Arunta region has not seen much drilling to date, the results have been eyebrow-raising to say the least. Niobium is listed as a critical metal by both the Australian and United States governments as the clean-energy revolution draws heavily on its global reserve base.
And it seems that niobium pentoxide represents a key growth market. Significant recent developments in lithium-ion battery technology precipitates the use of niobium, which manufacturers say will substantially reduce charge times while enhancing battery life by up to 10-times when compared to existing technologies.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Duffy
