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BAtteRY MIneRALs FocUs

The new captain in North America

s the newly appointed managing director subsidiary of Zhenshi Holding Group Co Ltd in the bank, extensional drilling followed by
Aof upcoming float Winsome Resources – second largest shareholder of $15 billion some infill work is first on the agenda for
Ltd, Chris Evans was already excited about fibreglass manufacturer China Jushi Co – is Cancet, with the Winsome team keen to
getting on the ground to check out the lithium investing $2.7 million. establish a maiden resource within 12-18
projects his company would soon be taking Winsome is a spin-out of ASX-listed Met- months. An exploration target of 15-25mt @
to market. alsTech Ltd which also floated on the same 1-2% lithium oxide has previously been de-
A seasoned lithium campaigner recog- projects – Cancet, Adina and Sirmac-Clapi- clared for the project.
nised for his previous work with Altura Min- er – back in early 2017. However, with the “If you look at where the drilling has been
ing Ltd and Mali Lithium (now Firefinch Ltd), lithium market subsequently tailing off, the done, with a bit more infill drilling there’s
Evans had seen pictures of the “impressive” parent company diversified into Slovakian probably a few million tonnes in terms of a
pegmatite crystals sticking out of the ground gold and parked the Canadian assets, until resource,” Evans said.
at his new company’s Cancet project in Que- now. “At Cancet, we have 39 claims in total,
bec, Canada. With lithium prices picking up through the all contiguous with one another, and we’ve
However, upon walking the ground for the first half of this year, MetalsTech jumped at drilled only three or four at the moment, so
first time in September, Evans was taken the chance to revive the projects via an IPO. there’s a huge area to find the rest of the
aback by the actual size of the opportunity Evans, who had worked with MetalsTech di- pegmatite.”
standing in front of him. rector and revered lithium wheeler-and-deal- MetalsTech previously completed metal-
“The crystals are huge, the biggest I’ve er Qingtao Zeng during his Altura days, was lurgical testing on Cancet which suggested
ever seen,” Evans told Paydirt after a two- then brought into the fold to run the process. the spodumene crystals were amenable to
week stint in quarantine upon returning to “We pegged the value of the assets at $9 heavy liquid separation which is typically a
Perth. million about six months ago…now it seems very good indicator for a low capex DMS. A
“I’ve been on half a dozen hard rock mines if we were valuing them today, we should be 6% spodumene concentrate was also pro-
around the world and what I saw was just so putting it much higher than $9 million given duced from this work with relative ease.
impressive. I was already excited before I the heat in the market,” Evans said. About 1,700m of diamond drilling has
went over there, but just spending time on “We think [the IPO] will be on the maxi- been completed over Adina, mostly on vis-
the ground, seeing these crystals and where mum side, given the unprecedented de- ible outcrops and intersecting grades in
the drilling has occurred, it’s obvious there’s mand we’re seeing.” the realm of 2.6% lithium oxide. Evans said
huge potential.” Cancet is the most advanced of the three further survey work was required to identify
Winsome lodged its prospectus last projects, all of which are located within the new targets before the proposed next round
month and is now seeking to raise $12-18 James Bay region of Quebec. It has seen of drilling.
million for an IPO which Evans was expect- some 5,500m of diamond drilling, with Sirmac-Clapier is the least advanced op-
ing to be oversubscribed given the current grades of up to 3.7% lithium oxide returned portunity in the portfolio but has the luxury
heat in the lithium market. All going to plan, from surface, although of sitting adjacent to an es-
the company is set to debut on the ASX later most of the coverage has tablished resource held by
this month. been limited to where the Nemaska Lithium Inc.
Dedicated battery materials royalties and outcropping pegmatite oc- For Evans, early-stage
streaming company Lithium Royalty Corp curs. exploration in Canada
will subscribe $3 million to the float, while a Once the IPO money is marks a significant change
from his previous roles
winsome managing director Chris evans which saw him oversee
(pictured right) inspects the outcropping the build of a new mine in
pegmatite at the company’s Cancet Western Australia before
lithium project in Quebec taking another project in
Mali to the brink of a DFS.
And while his first goal
is listing Winsome on the
Australian bourse, Evans
did not rule out the possibility of the compa-
ny joining the Canadian exchange at some
point in the future.
“Given the way that the ASX and Aus-
tralian investors value lithium stocks at the
moment, it makes sense for us to list on the
ASX, but I think it’s a target for when our
next lick of money is needed, say within 24
months, to list on the TSX,” he said.
“It would make sense, particularly with
Canadian investors becoming more enthusi-
astic…for lithium and battery materials. So, if
that comes about, a listing on the TSX in two
years will make complete sense to us.”
– Michael Washbourne

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