On 15th December 2022, Liatam Mining entered into an Earn-In Agreement with Novo Resources to explore for Battery Minerals within selected Pilbara tenements immediately south of Novo’s Nullagine Gold Project, collectively known as the Quartz Hill project area. The area is considered highly prospective for lithium–caesium–tantalum (“LCT”) style pegmatite mineralisation.
Liatam Mining can earn an 80% interest in the battery mineral rights in the Quartz Hill Project by spending A$1.5 million in exploration expenditure over 24 months. Novo is free carried to the earlier of a bankable feasibility study or A$20 million in aggregate expenditure at the Quartz Hill Project. Novo will retain a 20% interest in the Battery Minerals JV after Austroid Australia completes its earn-in, or Novo can elect to convert the 20% interest in the Battery Minerals JV into a royalty. Novo retains a 100% interest in gold and silver rights.
Austroid acquired all the Liatam interests in September 2024. The project area is located approximately 10km south-east of the township of Nullagine, 195km north of Newman and 250km east of Port Hedland (Figure 1). The Quartz Hill project area is comprised of three granted Exploration Licenses (“ELs”), thirteen Prospecting Licences (“PLs”) and one Exploration Licence Application (“ELA”) covering approximately 615km2 (Figure 2).
The geological units of the area loosely trend east-west, with numerous faults through the area (Figure 3). There are two main groups that occupy the project area, as summarised below:
Previous exploration identified numerous lepidolite-rich pegmatite dyke swarms within the Quartz Hill project area (Figure 4). A swarm of LCT pegmatites located in the Kurrana Shear Complex rocks of the Bonny Downs Granite and Golden Eagle Orthogneiss show anomalous lithium, tantalum and tin values.
Quartz Hill has seen very little previous lithium exploration, however hyperspectral data and ultra-detailed aerial photography supports the prospectivity for LCT pegmatite formation. Historical exploration has shown high grade rock chip results of up to 3.36% Li2O confirming the prospectivity of the area to include lithium as a potential economic commodity.
Outcropping lepidolite-bearing pegmatite swarms are mapped within the western tenements and recent exploration has focussed in this area.
Mapping, rock chip sampling and soil sampling will focus on the previously defined 16km long swarm of LCT pegmatites known as the Kurrana Pegmatite Swarm (Figure 3), lying 2-5km north of the Kurrana Granitic Complex along the contact with the Mosquito Creek Basin where over 200 pegmatites in numerous geometries and sizes have previously been identified, with some containing up to 40% lepidolite (Figure 5).
