Helix Resources Limited’s (ASX: HLX) wholly owned subsidiary company, Ionick Metals Ltd, has executed an Option Agreement over three Exploration Licences prospective for laterite hosted nickel-cobalt-platinum group metals mineralisation located in the ‘Greater Cobar’ region of NSW, Australia.
Highlights
- Special purpose vehicle, Ionick Metals Ltd established to ‘spin-out’ Helix’s nickel-cobalt assets located in the ‘Greater Cobar’ region of NSW to realise hidden value for Helix shareholders
- Ionick has finalised a 12-month Option with Jodama Pty Ltd to acquire three Exploration Licences to include in a proposed float of Ionick in exchange for Vendor and Performance shares in Ionick
- Existing Helix cornerstone assets already in Ionick include the Homeville Nickel-Cobalt Resource and several other high-grade laterite nickel-cobalt prospects in the same area.
- Homeville is one of the higher-grade laterite nickel-cobalt deposits in Australia on a nickel-equivalent basis
- The additional licences under Option, add ‘drill-ready’ advanced prospects and early-stage targets to Ionick’s portfolio
- Excellent potential to define additional Mineral Resources; drilling highlights include:
- 24m at 1.01% nickel (Ni) & 0.06% cobalt (Co) (Sykes prospect)
- 14m at 1.02% Ni & 0.13% Co (Sykes prospect)
- 25m at 0.82% Ni & 0.05% Co incl. 8m at 1.12% Ni & 0.09% Co (Browder prospect)
- 16m at 4.1 g/t Pt incl. 8m at 0.4% Ni and 0.05% Co (Jodama’s Hillview prospect)
- 4,500 metre drilling program meplanned to test advanced prospects and targets for nickel and cobalt in coming months
The Option deal with private exploration company, Jodama Pty Ltd, is the initial phase of a broader strategy of unlocking hidden value for a suite of Ni-Co-platinum group metals (PGM) prospects centred around Ionick’s Homeville Nickel-Cobalt Deposit.
To maintain its focus predominantly on copper, Helix plans to float Ionick on the ASX in the second half of this year, subject to market conditions and regulatory approval.
The Helix Board considers that there is significant unrealised value in the nickel-cobalt assets that Helix holds, particularly recognising that nickel and cobalt, like copper, are also critical metals in the electrical energy transition taking place globally,” Helix Managing Director, Mike Rosenstreich, said.
“We are excited by the asset profile; a high-grade nickel-cobalt laterite resource at Homeville, surrounded by numerous prospects with shallow, thick nickel-cobalt intercepts highlighting the potential to substantially grow the resource base.
“With the Collerina–Homeville area now finally drying out after flooding rains, we look forward to drilling some of these prospects to ‘prove the concept’ of shallow, high-grade easy to define resources. For these types of traditionally ‘capital-intensive’ projects, demonstrating that resource-scale can be addressed is a prime objective with viable process options closely linked to that.
“ The project area appears well served by logistics infrastructure which is a material hurdle holding many similar projects back.
“This option over the Jodama Licences provides a series of early-stage targets to advanced prospects easily accessible from Homeville and complements Ionick’s existing portfolio very well.
“Helix’s strategy is focused on copper, with numerous targets and prospects to hunt down. The Ni-Co exploration is reasonably straight forward in terms of delineating mineralisation with greater attention required on the metallurgical and processing aspects – hence to us it makes sense to split the two commodity groups. Note, there will be synergies and savings between Ionick and Helix’s operations in the area including overlap on many regional scale data sets.
“We look forward to undertaking the initial drilling work and finalising the business plan for Ionick in the next few months. This should set us up for the IPO runway in the middle of this year.”
