Octava Minerals is preparing for its ASX debut next month as it seeks to exploit some early lithium shows near Global Lithium Resources’ celebrated Pilbara lithium discovery. Octava has also pulled together a package of Kimberley and Mid West tenements in solidly mineralised terranes that are already jostling with battery metals big hitters and the company’s Pilbara ground also has some intriguing historical gold drill holes that look like they are begging for follow up.
The company’s IPO leap is being managed by Bell Potter Securities looks like debuting with as much as $6 million in the tin if the initial share offering of 20 cents is fully subscribed.
Octava will initially focus its gaze on its flagship Talga lithium and gold project in the Eastern Pilbara.
The project encompasses a combined 211.5 square kilometres about 30km north of Marble Bar in the Pilbara craton. It takes in an eight-piece set of granted exploration licences and importantly, Octava will list with the rights to fully acquire two and an option to farm into the remaining six by up to 80 per cent.
With just about every mineral hopeful in the business scouring the landscape for lithium bearing pegmatites amidst a global scramble for low-carbon energy solutions, Talga’s lithium potential is at the top of the list for Octava.
Notably it sits just 10kms to the North-East of Global Lithium Resources’ exciting Archer lithium discovery that currently clocks in at 10.5m tonnes going 1 per cent lithium oxide.
Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resource’s Wodgina lithium mine is also in the region, sitting around 120km to the West. Pilbara Minerals’ revered Pilgangoora lithium mine and Kalamazoo Resources-SQM’s DOM’s Hill lithium project round out the bustling new energy neighbourhood.
Importantly Talga looks a little better than just a nearology play too with pegmatites already spotted and one low grade rock chip sample showing they are indeed mineralised with lithium.
Octava says the geological environment of Talga’s southern extensions offer similar stratigraphy to Global Lithium’s Archer deposit.
The company believes a Moolyella monzogranite sequence, along with other late-stage granite intrusions that are peppered across Talga’s southern tenements could be the origin of the area’s lithium-enriched pegmatite mineralisation.
Octava intends to hit the ground running at Talga post listing with a dedicated mapping program and a swag of rock chip sampling to narrow down some lithium drill targets.
The project has already had a taste of pre-IPO support too, with a cornerstone investment from Chinese backers eager to potentially snap up battery metals ahead of a looming potential supply deficit.
Whilst lithium may be the main focus, Octava’s Talga ground is also likely to come under scrutiny for gold, given the success of its neighbours.
The ground around Talga is also held by some of the ASX’s more notable gold players including De Grey Mining who spectacularly disovered the 6.8 million-ounce Hemi discovery.
After the discovery at Hemi about two years ago, De Grey’s share price shot from about 4 cents in January 2020, touching a high of about $1.60 by September the same year.
Octava says Talga could also host a lucrative Hemi style intrusion-related gold system, with the ground also rich in mineralised Archean greenstone-granite terrains — the source of MinRex Resources' nearby Bamboo Creek development.
A commendable 1.5 million-ounce gold resource can also be found at Calidus Resources’ Warrawoona gold mine, about 40km to the south of Talga, in a structural environment that is similar according to the company.
Octava has a suite of gold targets peppered across a 14km zone at Talga and it has shuffled two of them to the front of the queue — the Razorback and Cord prospects.
Razorback is about 10km from Global Lithium Resources’s Twin Veins project, where a number of significant strikes were chalked up, including a pair of 7m intercepts going 4.78 g/t gold from 11m and 1.20 g/t gold from 27m respectively.
Razorback also boasts a solid set of historical drill results that require follow up, including a 16m intersection going 1.99 g/t gold from surface, 8m at 1.57 g/t gold from 50m and a 13m strike running 1.79 g/t gold from a depth of 42m.
Another 4m historic intersection came in at 4.69 g/t gold from just 4m downhole.
Significantly Octava says Razorback has only ever seen drilling over about a 700m area of the total 4km strike length.
The company also has its foot on a pair of projects in the East Kimberley region that are exquisitely perched immediately to the north of two serious existing discoveries.
The Copernicus project almost straddles the former Panoramic Resources’ Copernicus nickel mine just a couple of kilometres to the South.
Similarly, the company’s Panton North project sits just to the north of Future Metals’ 5m ounce Panton Sill platinum/palladium deposit in the East Kimberley.
Despite a significant amount of exploration in the Panton North project area in recent times, Octava says two key zones call for a second look — the Panton West prospect area and the northern rim of the Panton Sill mineralisation that Octava calls its Panton North prospect.
Notably the Panton North prospect has previously thrown up potentially ore grade rock chips going 1.55 grams per tonne palladium and 1.35 grams per tonne platinum.
Panton West is also competing for attention with prior rock chips grading 807ppb lead, 154ppb platinum, 2220ppm nickel and 824ppm copper and has never seen a drill rig
At Octava’s other tenement in its East Kimberly project, Copernicus North, the explorer has its sights on a well-defined exploration target area outlined by previous surface geochemistry and drilling. It will use an electromagnetic survey to vector in on the zone’s deep-lying massive sulphide occurrences ahead of a proposed drilling campaign.
Further down the company’s asset list is its Yallagong gold and nickel project, about 220km north-east of Geraldton in the Murchison region of WA.
The ground’s precious metal prospectivity is associated with structures linked to the crustal-scale Darling Fault, whilst its nickel content is linked to mafic-ultramafic intrusions.
After its expeditions at Talga and East Kimberly, Octava will shift its gaze to a sequence of pre-defined magnetic anomalies at Yallagong that it believes could host gold and nickel.
Perth-based Octava is run by Chief Executive Officer, Bevan Wakelam, an industry-trained geologist with more than 20 years’ experience in the sector, across a wealth of commodities.
The proposed capital structure of the Clayton Dodd chaired IPO is notable in that the founders and original shareholders do not look to have been greedy in the chop up, leaving plenty on the table for the new money.
At maximum subscription, the founding group will dilute down to 23.61 per cent – enough to keep them interested but not enough to drown out the new money in the IPO who will collectively hold 65 per cent. The remaining 11.38 per cent will be picked up by the project vendors.
With lithium, gold, nickel and even PGMs in its stable, Octava could effectively de-risk itself if it can navigate its exploration plans to capitalise on even one of the in-vogue group commodities.
Over the next decade, lithium demand alone is expected to severely outstrip supply and nickel and copper is expected to be dragged along as the electric vehicle juggernaut hits its straps.
Platinum group elements also have a halo around them right now after Chalice Mining and Galileo Mining’s recent impressive discoveries in WA.
Octava has a lot of smoke across a handful of solid looking projects and only time will tell if it can eke out some fire, however early signs look promising.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
