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nIcKeL PReVIeW

St George fills up battery metals plate

t George Mining Ltd has ambitions to this year. the world’s highest grade nickel operations
Sadd lithium to its nickel portfolio after the Retail investors showed a positive recep- after achieving first production in 2006.
discovery of encouraging pegmatites at its tion to the lithium news St George put out in “We have discovered lots of smaller de-
Mt Alexander project in Western Australia. September, with the company’s share price posits across the Cathedrals Belt, we re-
St George executive chairman John rallying 25% within 24 hours from the an- ally are chasing the big one now,” Prineas
Prineas said the pegmatites, which con- nouncement being made. added.
tain traces of lithium and other pathfinder Miring the reception and success at The additional nickel targets at Mt Alex-
elements, make a case for the company to stake, Prineas said it was a “good day” and ander, announced to the market in Sep-
“accelerate” exploration the attractive bat- compared St George’s potential to battery tember as “highly prospective”, were made
tery metal. metals player and JV partner, IGO Ltd. after an extensive seismic and EM survey.
“Red Dirt Metals [Ltd] has a lithium dis- “Nickel and lithium are great comple- One seismic anomaly was made roughly
covery just south-east of our Mt Alexan- ments for each other,” he said. “They are 320m below surface, underneath thick
der project,” Prineas explained to Paydirt. key battery and EV metals. IGO have writ- granites which have intruded the green-
“It looks like the pegmatites that Red Dirt ten the playbook on how to develop a bat- stone belt. Prineas said it was fairly straight-
have found have a bit forward geology.
of a corridor that contin- “It is an area which has
ues north to our ground undergone structural de-
as well. We found quite formation, so it has been
extensive outcrop- changed but it’s actu-
ping pegmatites on our ally a typical geological
ground.” setting for the potential
More than 40 rock concentration of nickel
chip samples were sulphide,” he said. “The
taken from the peg- greenstone belt would
matites which crop up have been there first and
in “swarms” across a the granites would have
15km trail. The samples come in and pushed the
returned anomalous val- sulphides around and
ues for lithium, caesium, potentially concentrated
tantalum and rubidium them into a very nice de-
which support the po- posit.”
tential for lithium miner- St George expects to
alisation at depth. start drilling by the end
“[The samples] re- of this year and Prineas
turned some geo- said funding for a single
chemistry favourable rig wouldn’t be a prob-
for lithium pegmatite lem.
mineralisation,” Prineas “We have enough
said. “Particularly, very Pegmatites indicate potential lithium mineralisation below the surface for St George funds to drill that, we just
strongly anomalous ru- to drill in Q4 want to firm up the target
bidium that is basically and we’re ready to go,”
the key marker for pegmatites that could tery metals company, having both lithium he said.
be lithium bearing…this could be the right and nickel. I think we’re going to be very Heading into the Australian Nickel Con-
thing. happy progressing both in tandem.” ference this month, Prineas said although
“We’re doing more rock chip sampling IGO now operates a 25% interest in Mt lithium was a great opportunity for the com-
right now and, hopefully, we’ll be ready to Alexander, having earlier this year snapped pany, it wouldn’t distract from the nickel.
drill some targets again in Q4.” up St George’s former JV partner and nick- “You can’t ignore the lithium, it’s a very
If St George can add a considerable lith- el market darling Western Areas. exciting market still there,” he said. “[But]
ium presence to its ongoing nickel efforts St George’s lithium announcement was nothing gets the heart racing better than
at Mt Alexander, it gives potential for the in- made less than a week after the discovery a nickel sulphide discovery, so we’re still
trepid explorer to pivot to a diverse battery of new “highly prospective” nickel sulphide on the hunt for the new nickel deposit and
metals player. targets at Mt Alexander. Prineas once hopefully start delivering the goods.
Nickel and lithium are a natural pairing in again made the IGO connection, this time “I think the macro environment is really
a market where battery metals will only con- comparing the geology to Western Areas’ just telling us there is a continuing demand
tinue to feel a price squeeze due to demand Flying Fox mine. for nickel going forward. It’s an unstoppable
for EVs and other clean energy products. “This is a geological setting not too dif- train, the clean energy revolution. Nickel is
Out of the battery metals family, lithium ferent from Forrestania, where Western an essential commodity for that, whether
has undergone the largest price rally in the Areas made their big Flying Fox discovery,” it’s EVs, batteries or other clean energy so-
past year, with spodumene concentrate he said. “We’re very keen to go out and drill lutions.”
achieving $US62,000/t in June. Meanwhile, test that to see if lightning strikes twice.” – Fraser Palamara
the World Bank estimates nickel prices Flying Fox was Western Areas’ first un-
could climb to $US18,000/t by the end of derground mine and went on to be one of

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