Lithium and gold explorer Octava Minerals hit the ASX boards today opening at $0.27 as it eclipsed its issue price of $0.20 by 35 per cent. After a fully subscribed initial public offering the company successfully raked in $6m with most of the funds earmarked for exploration at the company’s flagship Talga lithium joint venture in WA’s East Pilbara region.
Two cornerstone industry investors Fuyang Mingjin New Energy Development and Southeast Mingqing Supply Chain participated in the raise with both parties now holding a 15 per cent interest in the company.
Octava’s Talga project reached flagship status after the company entered a farm-in joint venture agreement with ASX-listed First Au to earn an interest of up to 80 per cent of its project by spending $900,000 over three years.
The project lies just 10km north-east of ASX-listed Global Lithium Resources’ Archer deposit of 10.5 million tonnes going 1 per cent lithium oxide and encouragingly previous sampling of pegmatites within the southern area of Octava’s project returned 0.22 per cent lithium oxide.
Whilst lithium may be its main focus, Octava’s tenement also features an array of high-grade gold hits along with some notable neighbours.
Historical intersections at the project’s Razorback prospect include 16m at 2 grams per tonne gold from surface and 2m at 6.23 g/t from 28m, however drill testing has only probed across 700m of a 4km prospective strike length.
As far as neighbours go, De Grey Mining’s 6.8-million-ounce Hemi gold deposit lies 133km to the west and 30km to the south lies the newly producing Calidus Resources’ 1.5-million-ounce Warrawoona gold project.
A little closer to home and 15km to the east of Talga lies the historical Bamboo Creek gold mine where since 1889 about 779,350 tonnes of ore was reportedly processed at a grade of 8.15 grams per tonne gold.
This week Octava made its first cash payment of $180,000 in exchange for a 10 per cent slice of the lithium and gold project.
The company has also pulled together a package of tenements prospective for gold, nickel and platinum group metals across WA’s Kimberley and Mid West regions.
Of Octava’s raised capital, $3.47 million of it will be funnelled into exploration across its portfolio with the flagship to receive the lion’s share.
With a well-diversified portfolio and saddlebags freshly laden with cash it appears Octava Minerals is already off to an encouraging start on its first day as a public company.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
