Estrella Resources is beefing up its presence in the emerging mineral jurisdiction of Timor-Leste, securing two new 50-square-kilometre exploration licences that are prospective for large copper and gold systems.
The company says its latest additions have been accompanied by a key conditional approval for a maiden export of its high-grade manganese to Indonesia.
The move comes as Timor-Leste actively opens its mining sector to foreign investment, with the government recently tendering key metallic minerals rights including copper and gold. Estrella's progress mirrors that of other ASX-listed explorers in the region such as Tivan Limited, adding weight to the country's perceived geological potential in a prolific copper-gold region of the world.
The company has been awarded two new exploration and evaluation licences in the Covalima and Oecusse municipalities, with a geological review of the new ground identifying the potential for copper and gold mineralisation within the Lolotoi Complex and Manamas volcanic rock units, respectively.
The Indonesian archipelago is renowned for its extensive porphyry systems, which are the world's primary source of copper. With its new licences covering largely unexplored ground, Estrella says it is now poised to search for potentially big hydrothermal copper systems, where modern exploration will provide the first clues of a potentially much bigger prize at depth.
The Lolotoi Complex is known for intense folding and shearing that can create conduits for gold-bearing fluids, while the Manamas Volcanics are associated with alluvial gold occurrences believed to have been shed from an as-yet-undiscovered primary source.
In a parallel move at Estrella's more advanced Timor projects, the company has received conditional approval from the national mining authority, the Autoridade Nacional dos Minerais (ANM), to export a maiden 100-tonne bulk sample of high-grade manganese to clients in Indonesia.
The sample was extracted from its Ira Miri open pit and has been sold at commercial market rates to a downstream customer in West Timor, intended as trial feed for a manganese smelter. The approval is an important step, as the Timor-Leste government has marked up manganese as a strategic mineral to actively attract international business.
While the 100-tonne road haulage parcel is a significant first step, it is the forerunner to a much larger play. Estrella has also lodged an application to export a 27,000-tonne bulk sample by sea and says it expects to receive that approval shortly.
Estrella Resources managing director Robert Mencel said: “The award of two new licences sees our company gain exposure to the Lolotoi Complex and Manamas Volcanics, which are two highly prospective, largely unexplored units with potential to enhance our copper-gold exploration. At the same time, conditional approval for our maiden 100-tonne export is an important milestone as we work to broaden our customer base."
Additionally, the company is advancing its Werumata limestone project, also in Timor-Leste, where a massive 621-million-tonne inferred mineral resource was recently defined. A scoping study is now underway, with Estrella keen to identify a low-cost opportunity to upgrade a portion of its resource to the higher-confidence indicated category for mining, by conducting density analysis on existing drill core.
With a pipeline of activity scheduled, the company is preparing for a busy end to the year. A 3000m drilling program is slated to begin shortly to test compelling copper-gold geophysical targets, while a regional helicopter survey is scheduled to take off in late September to identify even further targets.
At the same time, conditional approval for its maiden manganese shipment and a bigger export parcel waiting in the wings are steadily building Estrella’s pathway to cash flow.
No doubt, the upcoming drill campaign will put some of the project's most compelling copper-gold targets under the microscope, where a significant discovery could quickly steal the spotlight.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Todd
