White Cliff Minerals has acquired the Mineral Fields, Soak Sands and Border Exploration companies in a deal that brings 12 projects prospective for rare earths and iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits into its fold.
The dozen projects cover 2562 square kilometres in Western Australia – from Jerramungup in the State’s Great Southern region, to Wanna Lakes near the South Australian border and up to the Three Rivers-Ashton Hills projects east of Carnarvon and south of Newman.
The company has prioritised its newly-acquired Mt Charles, Barballin and Snake Well projects for immediate exploration activity that will complement the current groundwork at its Hines Hill and Lake Tay rare earths deposits.
Mt Charles sits 550km east of Laverton near the town of Warburton and within unused crown land. The project hosts several high-gravity anomalies that management believes may indicate the presence of rare earths and iron-oxide-copper-gold mineralisation. The anomalies trend in a north-west direction over about 9km and are flanked to the north and south by two major thrust faults.
The Mt Charles area was explored by BHP Billiton from 2000 to 2001 to test for IOCG-type mineralisation and that company completed two diamond drill holes based on previous work by Western Mining Corporation. However, White Cliff believes BHP drilled too far to the north and instead has its eyes on gravity anomalies 4km south of the previous drill holes.
Barballin covers 130sq km north of Merredin and close to where White Cliff has its Hines Hill project. It has never been explored for rare earths despite nearby pegmatites being mined for feldspar immediately east of the site.
Snake Well covers 217sq km in the southern Gascoyne region, about 130km north-west of Meekatharra. The company is planning a stream sampling program at the operation, followed by grid-based soil geochemistry.
White Cliff Minerals director Ed Mead said: “The proposed acquisition of these new projects is complementary to the Company’s strategy to build value through acquisition and internal project generation, targeting prospective areas with large, underexplored land packages.”
Under its purchase agreement, White Cliff will incorporate all three companies as subsidiaries for $10,000 and 70 million fully-paid ordinary shares. Additional cash and assets owned by the subsidiaries will be converted to shares at the issue price of $0.006.
The company’s latest deal comes less than two months after it announced the sale of its Yinnetharra lithium-rare earths project to ASX-listed Minerals 260. White Cliff argues its divestment of the Gascoyne project allows it to maintain a vested interest in Yinnetharra through its shareholding, in addition to the potential upside of Minerals 260’s other exploration projects.
The new acquisitions fall into White Cliff’s strategy to pick up early-stage assets and create value for shareholders, who still need to voice their approval before the deal can be finalised.
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By Michael Philipps
