MinRes buys 10pc stake in lithium hopeful

Mineral Resources has bought a nearly 10 per cent stake in newly listed Kali Metals, just days after the aspiring lithium miner made its stock market debut.

Chris Ellison’s MinRes bought a 9.97 per cent stake in Kali Metals, which will be separate from the 4.86 per cent holding of his private company, Wabelo.

Kali was spun-out from West Perth miner Kalamazoo Resources and Canadian goldminer Karora Resources, both of which are Kali’s biggest shareholders.

One million shares were picked up by internationally renowned but Western Australia-based celebrity photographer and MinRes employee Russell James, while former MinRes director Tim Roberts bought 4 million shares and Navitas co-founder Rod Jones 3.5 million shares, according to the top 20 holders report from January 3.

The junior miner started trading on the ASX on Monday after issuing 60 million shares priced at 25 cents each through an initial public offering that quickly raised $15 million.

Its shares have skyrocketed since, now trading up 52 per cent to 80 cents at 12:15PM AWST.

MinRes’s holding notice follows Kali’s announcement this morning, saying its preliminary exploration had identified lithium bearing pegmatites across multiple areas at its Spargoville project in the Goldfields, near MinRes’s Bald Hill lithium mine.

The explorer also owns three projects in the East Pilbara in a joint venture with SQM, under which the Chilean lithium miner is funding exploration to earn an up to 70 per cent stake in two of the three assets in the area.

Kali general manager Stuart Peterson said the Higginsville lithium district portfolio - home to the Spargoville project - had already proved prospective for lithium exploration.

“Our exploration team, who have extensive lithium exploration experience, have set up ongoing exploration pathways for identifying new lithium discoveries across what is an impressive, district scale tenement holding,” he said.