Coffee with Samso Episode 179 is with Matt Szwedzicki, Managing Director of West Cobar Metals Limited (ASX: WC1)
Szwedzicki is the new managing director of West Cobar and he assures shareholders that it's business as usual. The recent news from the company is evident that the exploration objectives are all status quo.
To the followers of Samso, you would remember that in my previous conversation with West Cobar Metals, we highlighted the Salazar Rare Earth project. The Salazar project has a slightly different edge as it is hosted in an ultramafic rock, Amphibolite.
Since that time, I have had many discussions on the increased awareness of different host rocks. Traditionally the clay REE sector was all about granitic host rocks, but I have now come across WC1 and then Australian Rare Earths Ltd. The big question is whether these different host rocks make any difference.
Szwedzicki gives us an update on the company about its recent announcements and the change in management.
The West Cobar REE Story
West Cobar is a mineral exploration and development company focused on rare earths and battery minerals within Australia and the US. Their projects include:
The Salazar Rare Earths Clay Project is located on non-agricultural undeveloped state land approximately 120km north-east of the township and deep-water port of Esperance in Western Australia. The Newmont deposit, located on the easternmost tenement at Salazar, contains an estimated JORC Inferred Mineral Resource of 43.5Mt at 1192ppm TREO + Y2O3 (500ppm cut-off). The O’Connor prospect to the west of Newmont has potential to host further significant high-grade rare earths mineralization.
2. Nevada Lithium Project
The Montezuma Well and Big Smoky Valley claims are considered prospective for large-scale sedimentary-hosted lithium claystone deposits. The claims are located within the world class mining-friendly jurisdiction of the Nevada lithium district and host similar geology to known major lithium deposits in the region – including American Lithium (TLC deposit), American Battery Technology Company (OTCQB:ABML) (Tonopah Flats deposit), Ioneer (Rhyolite Ridge deposit) and Century Lithium (Clayton Valley deposit).
3. Hermit Hill Lithium Project
The Hermit Hill project area is located in the Litchfield Province in the Northern Territory, roughly 100km south, southwest of Core Lithium’s Finniss Lithium Project and Lithium Plus Minerals’ Lei lithium prospect, and 30km west of Ragusa Minerals’ Tank Hill lithium discovery. The project is prospective for pegmatite-hosted lithium mineralisation.
Samso's Conclusion
In my opinion, the Clay REE story is a developing concept. When the "boom" happened, I posed the question to the companies that were engaging in Coffee with Samso - "What is a good intersection?" Then I asked, "What should investors look for, and, since now we are at the stage where we are asking, how leachable is your material?" So now the market is thinking that ionic clays are the type you want to discover as these types leach better.
Well, that may be true but there is no other way to know if you are Ionic or not, other than to send your samples to the lab. The implication of this is, what are we exploring for, and how are we going to know if the discovery is indeed "Clay" or "Ionic" in nature.
The majority of explorers are looking for REE in a Granitic environment but Salazar is in an ultramafic basement and the AR3 example is in a limestone. So, what does all this mean? My thoughts are that the "news" that Ionic is more leachable than Clay may not necessary be the end game. I think the truth will only be told when the lab results are finalised.
What is for sure is that the different chemistry must play some part in the leaching side of the equation. Salazar is distinctly different so the jury is definitely still out on all fronts.
Chapters:
00:00 Start
00:20 Introduction
00:20 Introduction
01:12 Who is Matt Szwedzicki?
05:28 Updates on West Cobar projects
09:26 Feedback on West Cobar projects
12:15 The Rare Earths market
14:01 The Hermit Hill project
15:41 How should investors look at West Cobar?
19:33 Discussion about ionic leaching
24:03 News flow
26:38 Why West Cobar Metals Limited?
27:25 Conclusion
PODCAST
About Matt Szwedzicki
Managing Director
Matt Szwedzicki has over 20 years of corporate and commercial experience, having worked in senior leadership roles with a focus on M&A, corporate growth and investment strategy.
Matt co-founded and is the Managing Director of Spark New Energies, an energy company with its main assets in the UK. Prior to that Matt held various executive corporate and commercial roles in the energy and resources industries.
About West Cobar Metals Limited (ASX: WC1)
West Cobar Metals Limited (ASX:WC1) is a minerals exploration and development company focused on rare earths and battery minerals within Australia and the US.
The Salazar REE Project
The Salazar Project comprises granted tenements E63/1469 and E63/1496 located on non-agricultural undeveloped state land approximately 120km north-east of the township and deep water port of Esperance (Figure 1). In terms of geological setting, it is situated in the eastern part of the Proterozoic Albany-Fraser Orogen, east of the Biranup and Fraser Zones, straddling the Heywood-Newman Shear Zone and Nornalup Zone.
REE mineralisation at the Newmont deposit (E63/1496) is hosted by in-situ regolith over Proterozoic-aged basement rocks. A geological model has been proposed by Salazar Minerals whereby granites containing REE carbonates and other REE minerals are the source rocks for secondary REE mineralisation in the overlying saprolite profile. Mineralogical studies have indicated that the saprolite targets contain fine-grained secondary REE-bearing phosphates.
Newmont Mineral Resource
Salazar Minerals was one of the first companies to appreciate the potential for clay REE deposits in Australia. The tenements were first acquired in 2011 (granted in 2012) with the private company carrying out several aircore drilling programs to test for REE mineralisation. In total 165 aircore and RC holes for 6393m have been drilled within the tenements, leading to the discovery and delineation of the Newmont deposit.
CSA Global ("CSA") was engaged by Salazar Minerals to estimate a Mineral Resource for the Newmont deposit in 2015. CSA estimated an Inferred Mineral Resource of 43.5Mt at 1192ppm TREO + Y2O3 (500ppm cut-off) in accordance with the JORC Code (2012).
The Newmont deposit also hosts an Inferred Mineral Resource of 31.2% Al2O3 (15% Al cut-off) in accordance with the JORC Code 2012 (Table 2). The high-grade alumina within kaolin-rich zones has potential to be feedstock for production of high purity alumina.
Lab test work demonstrates that this material shows high leach extraction and high purification grades to produce 99.99% (4N) High Purity Alumina (HPA).
O’Connor Prospect
The Salazar Project also includes the O’Connor prospect (E63/1469) which is located 10 kms to the south-east of the Newmont Deposit. The O’Connor Prospect has 32 vertical holes drilled for a total of 901 meters. Some of the drill intersections at O’Connor include:
SAC160, 19m @ 1939 ppm TREO + Y2O3 from 8m
SAC161, 20m @ 2392 ppm TREO + Y2O3 from 7m
SAC162, 19m @ 1350 ppm TREO + Y2O3 from 17m
SAC179, 9m @ 3258 ppm TREO + Y2O3 from 14m
SAC178, 10m @ 1586 ppm TREO + Y2O3 from 10m
SAC188, 23m @ 1454 ppm TREO + Y2O3 from 16m
SAC157, 17m @ 1186 ppm TREO + Y2O3 from 15m
SAC159, 12m @ 1110 ppm TREO + Y2O3 from 8m
Newmont Metallurgy & Studies
Technical work on the deposit has involved reputable institutions including the CSIRO, the University of Western Australia and the University of Newcastle and mineral processing firms Nagrom and Amdel.
Early metallurgical studies and characterisation testwork show the REE clays are amenable to acid leach processing
Magnet rare earths (MREO) - Neodymium, Praseodymium, Dysprosium and Terbium concentrations up to 25%
Heavy rare earth (HREO) concentrations up to 30%
Critical rare earth (CREO) concentrations up to 37%
Nevada Lithium Project
The Montezuma Well and Big Smoky Valley claims are considered prospective for large-scale sedimentary-hosted lithium claystone deposits.
The claims are located within the world class mining-friendly jurisdiction of the Nevada lithium district and host similar geology to known major lithium deposits in the region – including American Lithium (TLC deposit), American Battery Technology Company (Tonopah Flats deposit), Ioneer (Rhyolite Ridge deposit) and Century Lithium (Clayton Valley deposit).
Hermit Hill Lithium Project
The Hermit Hill project area is located in the Litchfield Province in the Northern Territory, roughly 100km south-southwest of Core Lithium’s Finniss Lithium Project and Lithium Plus Minerals’ Lei lithium prospect, and 30km west of Ragusa Minerals’ Tank Hill lithium discovery. The project is prospective for pegmatite-hosted lithium mineralisation.
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