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Australasian joins the fray

ustralian Gold Ltd is yet another company entering the
ANorthern Territory lithium space, already receiving backing
from the CSIRO for exploration at its Mt Peake project, 200km
north of Alice Springs.
CSIRO is funding half of the exploration fees as part of the
“Kick-Start” programme, giving access of its technology to Aus-
tralasian. This includes optical, thermal and geophysical remote
sensing data analysis as the company seeks occurrences of
lithium pegmatites.
“We are delighted to be able to team up with CSIRO to accel-
erate our lithium exploration program,” Australasian managing
director Qingtao Zeng said.
“CSIRO are true innovators with cutting-edge equipment and
knowledge learned from previous lithium exploration research.
“We are very excited to put these techniques to the test at our
Mount Peake lithium pegmatite project, and in return, we will be
assisting with the ongoing refinement of CSIRO’s spectral sens-
ing techniques used for future lithium exploration.” Qingtao Zeng

Australia, respectively. a good chunk of data to look at. I said, the line.”
“There is certainly a cluster of deals every ‘just give me some time to see if it makes When assay results are delivered, Cas-
week that make no sense to me,” Paull told sense’.” tillo is awarded an extension on the due
Paydirt. “No, I don’t want to go into coal. Since September 29, Castillo has been in diligence period. The company shelled out
No, I don’t want to go into uranium. But then a 90-day period to perform its due diligence $50,000 in cash to enter the 90-day option.
this lithium deal came across my desk. I on the two projects. Lithium occurrences Should the company pounce on the
thought the ground looked very interesting. have been confirmed at Picasso and sig- projects, they will pay $1 million worth of
We then bartered on the price structuring nificant pegmatite outcroppings have been shares as a first milestone payment. Anoth-
and what that would look like. spotted at Litchfield. er two milestones exist for a total $2 million
“At first I wasn’t confident this would get The projects both carry a swagger of in shares; one, if two holes between 100m
across the line. Right now, we’re using an nearology as Litchfield sits next door to and 200m apart produce at least 10m @
external geological consultant and there’s Core’s Finniss while Picasso sits north of 1.3%; another, if the total inferred resource
Liontown Resources is at least 7mt @ 1.3% as modelled by SRK
Ltd’s Buldania project Consulting.
in WA. Paull is also equally excited for entering
Such nearology the lithium market as he is for being in the
piqued Paull’s inter- NT.
est but he remains “For some reason, I like the NT,” he said.
cautious while Cas- “I’ve read some reports on that part of the
tillo awaits more than world and its geology, and it just seemed to
600 samples from an ring a bell with me.
assay lab. “The lithium space just seems to make
“The nearology sense, whether it’s Litchfield, Picasso, or a
certainly got our at- sum of the three; I don’t mind. And for the
tention,” he said. sake of $50,000 to put our feet on these
“Nearology can be leases, and to get the time to investigate
misleading, that’s them properly, it just seemed to make
part of the reason sense – and if we proceed with it, it doesn’t
why we didn’t sign a hurt the bank balance.”
deal straight away for Biggins acknowledged that Core’s rapid
the company, but it is success in the NT is likely to better sell the
certainly titillating. opportunities abound.
“I am a pragmatist. “With Core’s success, there is growing
We have more than interest in the NT from a number of ASX
650 samples cur- listed companies in lithium,” he said. “It’s
rently in the lab in Ad- good to see and we encourage others com-
elaide. The proof will ing into the area looking at growing the NT’s
be in pudding if we do contribution to the future lithium sector.”
exercise the option – Fraser Palamara
and it is my expecta-
tion that we do. The
nearology is good,
but that alone won’t
Lithium pegmatite outcropping at the Litchfield project in the get our deal across
Northern Territory, next to Finniss

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT NOVeMBeR 2021 Page 61