Everest Metals Corporation (ASX: EMC) has received notification from the Northern Territory’s Mineral Titles office that the company’s 100% owned tenements have been granted. The tenements include five Mineral Exploration Licences northeast of Alice Springs and one Mineral Exploration Licence, west of Alice Springs, covering 3,421 sq. km (1,189 blocks) in total.
EMC is pleased to have taken the opportunity to be part of a first moving group of companies able to secure significant tenure over areas of geological interest in the Northern Territory. The company plans to further develop targets for Battery and other Critical Metals over this very large tenure,” Chief Operating Officer, Simon Phillips, said.
In late December 2022, the company applied for 15 Mineral Exploration Licences (ELs) located to the northeast and west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The tenement package covers an area of 10,207.84 sq. km (3,443 blocks), including two areas 220km northeast of Alice Springs (Georgina tenure, 5,001.08 sq. km), and 150km west of Alice Springs (Amadeus tenure, 5,206.76 sq. km).
The Northern Territory Department of Industry, Tourism, and Trade (DITT) have formally confirmed the application and assigned ELA numbers. EL applications include EL33415, EL33416, EL33417, EL33418, EL33419, EL33420, EL33421 which are named Amadeus and EL33422, EL33423, EL33424, EL33425, EL33426, EL33427, EL33433 and EL33439 which are named Georgina.
The company followed up on landowner and native title agreements post-granting of applications. Applications EL33421-EL33424, EL33433, and EL33439 had a National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) clearance period ended on 6 July 2023, the notice of Intention to Grant was received on 10 July 2023 and Mineral Exploration Licences took effect from 26 July 2023 for a term of six years, comprises 1,189 blocks covering an area of 3,421 sq. km.
EMC received a Confirmation of Grant on 8 August 2023. Furthermore, the Consent to Negotiate was granted on 15 March 2023 for the other EL applications including EL33415-EL33420 and EL33425-EL33427 for the submission of a ‘Consent to Grant Application’ to the Central Land Council (CLC). The application for the Consent to Grant an Exploration Licence was prepared and lodged with CLC on 24 April 2023 and the company received the acceptance letter on 28 July 2023. EMC is expected to obtain all required approvals for these tenements in 2024.
The company’s Project area in Northern Territory comprises six granted tenements and nine in application status covering 3,443 blocks in the southwest Georgina Basin and north Amadeus Basin and are prospective for Lithium pegmatites and sediment-hosted Copper-Lead-Zinc and Rare Earth Elements. The granting of the new exploration licences provides expanded opportunities for the company to explore the tenements which lie along the prospective geological basins in the region.
EMC is committed to carrying out the exploration programme and the potential project development within the prescript of the approved Mineral Exploration Licences and under a Mining Management Plan (MMP) for Exploration.
Relevant stakeholders will be kept up to date with the development of the exploration activities and all engagement will be conducted with the Native Title Parties and Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority as part of the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibilities.
The company was attracted to the project area by its strategy in developing projects in battery minerals and precious metals. Due to this region’s rich mineralisation and currently advancing peer projects, this was seen as an excellent project development opportunity. The Preliminary Desktop Study (PDS) included an assessment of the local geology, geophysical data, surface geochemistry, peer tenure, and historic company reports. This PDS aims to establish an appropriate mineralisation model for the project and identify geological evidence for target delineation and future exploration activities.
The Georgina Project area is located approximately 220km northeast of Alice Springs. The Georgina Basin is a polyphase intracratonic basin in the central-eastern Northern Territory extending into western Queensland. The southern Georgina Basin is widely regarded as one of the more prospective areas for onshore petroleum in the Northern Territory. The Palaeozoic successions of the Georgina Basin contain base metals mines, prospects, occurrences, and anomalies that can be assigned to several Cu and Pb-Zn mineralisation styles. The basin is also very prospective for phosphate over large areas of its central and northern parts, hosting several substantial deposits.
Other prospective commodities within the Georgina Basin include diamonds, manganese, and uranium. Neoproterozoic and/or Palaeozoic successions of the southern Georgina Basin have also been explored for gold and platinum group elements but to date without success. Due to the lack of surface sampling within the project area, low-cost satellite image processing and low-impact ground traverses across the project to confirm prospective outcrop may be the most effective approach to identify and sample previously unrecorded and unsampled prospects2.
The PDS concluded that there is sufficient existing geological and geochemical evidence to rate the Georgina project as prospective for both primary and secondary mineralisation targets, including but not limited to; polymetallic base metal deposits, LCT-bearing pegmatites, and Rare Earth Elements mineralisation. The information reviewed suggests that prospectivity is likely for primary mineralisation targets.