The NT Independent is providing an update of resource news from across the Northern Territory. Highlights this week include Ragusa obtaining historical lithium results from its NT project, Tivan operating a mineral processing plant at the Middle Arm precinct, Tennant Minerals completing its $5 million placement, and Fidelity buying 50 per cent of Greensands.

Tennant Minerals completes $5m placement after hitting remarkable gold-copper zone at Bluebird

Tennant Minerals (TMS) said it has completed its oversubscribed $5 million capital raise to be used for a drilling program and development studies at its Barkly project in the Territory. TMS said the fund will go towards extending and defining the Bluebird copper-gold discovery to the east and west and testing its depth extent to greater than 400 metres.

TMS earlier announced that it had recorded substantial initial findings from its second round of boring at its Bluebird project in the Territory. It also said the first diamond drill hole returned 30.5 metres at 6.2 per cent copper and 6.8 grams of gold per tonne. TMS said this hit included a 17.8-metre zone at 11.5 g/t gold and a 16.1-metre zone at 10.5 per cent copper.

The company plans to continue testing other priority targets within the 2.5-kilometre Bluebird-Perseverance corridor.

“Our objective here is to identify multiple, multi-million-tonne copper-gold deposits within the Barkly Tenements and establish a resource base to support a stand-alone mining and processing operation,” TMS chairman Matthew Driscoll said.

Tivan to process minerals at Middle Arm precinct

Tivan (formerly TNG Limited) announced that it will be processing minerals at the $1.5 billion Middle Arm precinct near Darwin, after reaching an agreement with the Territory Government, the details of which have not been revealed.

Tivan said the location had been developed significantly by the Territory Government during the past 18 months in terms of “advanced planning and enhanced regulatory pathways, particularly environmental” and that the precinct provided perfect access to infrastructure, export markets, water, electricity and a workforce. The company said their planned processing facility in the precinct will create around 1,500 jobs during construction and around 1,000 during operation.

“We had an obligation to earn and maintain a social licence to operate at Middle Arm. I fully expect Middle Arm will emerge as the pre-eminent sustainable development precinct in Australia in the decade ahead,” Tivan executive chairman Grant Wilson said.

Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler said the company will be required to comply with the conditions established by an environmental assessment of the precinct, which is currently underway.

Fidelity to buy 50 per cent of Greensands

Fidelity Minerals Corp. (FMN) has agreed to purchase a 50 per cent stake in Greensands Australia Pty Ltd (GAL) which has applied for an exploration licence covering the Florina Greensand Project in the Territory. The other 50 per cent will be bought by Lions Bay Capital Inc. (LBI), FMN’s biggest shareholder.

Located 70 km west of Katherine, the Florina Greensand Project is made up of a large, surficial deposit of the mineral glauconite. Earlier testing indicated that the project contains huge concentrations of potassium and phosphorous, the major chemical elementals for the production of potash and phosphate fertilizers.

Under the terms of the agreement with GAL, FMN will issue two million common shares at $0.06 per piece which will not be traded for a year, upon GAL receiving its exploration permit; FMN funding 50 per cent of GAL’s stage one operations costing a total of $250,000, including stage two operations with a total cost of $1 million; FMN to issue an additional two million common shares upon completion of the scoping study; and, should the scoping study show a pre-tax IRR of over 19 per cent then the vendors will be entitled to a bonus payment of $1 million, in the form of cash and shares (with a minimum 50 per cent cash).

Ragusa obtains historical lithium results from its NT project

Ragusa Minerals (RAS) has announced obtaining historical drilling results that confirmed the presence of the Tank Hill prospect of its NT lithium project. A diamond drill hole at Tank Hill was completed back in 2019, in which tests returned a 25.5-metre pegmatite intercept with logged spodumene and lithium.

The Tank Hill Prospect contains at least two thick pegmatite outcrops around 63 metres apart and is one of the priority areas for planned drilling within the currently approved mining management plan.

Ragusa chairman Jerko Zuvela said deeper drilling is planned for the coming Dry season and planning is also underway for additional exploration to support drill-hole targeting. “Ragusa is in a strong position to rapidly accelerate lithium exploration at our project within a proven high quality-lithium district in a tier-one jurisdiction close to major infrastructure at a time of record lithium prices,” he said.

The company is in a tenement farm-in agreement with May Drilling for the exclusive right to earn an initial 90 per cent interest in five tenements in the Litchfield Pegmatite Belt of the Northern Territory.