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Boadicea is undertaking its most active exploration activity in its history
Boadicea Resources Ltd (ASX:BOA)’s Jon Reynolds updates Proactive’s Andrew Scott on the company’s highly extensive work program – the most active exploration program in its history.
Six projects are being rapidly advanced to define drilling targets. Boadicea management is rapidly progressing its most prospective tenements for an early discovery.
Boadicea’s Managing Director Jon Reynolds outlines prospects in nickel, copper, gold, lithium and Rare Earth Elements (REE). The latest exploration work has identified REE potential. Jon Reynolds also highlights how Boadicea has aligned its exploration with the key Electric Vehicle (EV) commodities as well as gold.
“There is a lot going on with Boadicea at the moment and we have assessed this period as probably the busiest in the company’s history. We have six active projects being progressed in parallel and we are currently on the ground in four of them.
“With the challenges of COVID starting to be left behind, the planning that we have been working on is finally coming to fruition.
“The most advanced of these is certainly the Bald Hill Lithium project in Western Australia. The licence is located about 2km east of the Bald Hill lithium mine and the processing plant and potentially along strike,” Jon Reynolds says.
Boadicea acquired this licence in February 2022, and completed the auger sampling in March. Results are still pending for the sampling and expected early June.
Last week Boadicea completed the heritage survey over one of the target areas. Subject to that clearance, the company aims to have a drill rig on ground as soon as possible to test for lithium pegmatites of a similar style to the bald hill deposit.
Nickel, the backbone of the company
Nickel has always been the mainstay since the birth of the company more than 10 years ago and remains at the core of the company.
“While nine of our tenements are being managed and funded by IGO, Boadicea retains a management interest in two tenements in the southern portion of the Fraser Range gravity high.
“Last week, we completed an extensive EM survey covering the more prospective areas of the Southern Hills and the Fraser South licence.
“I haven’t seen any results from the survey yet, but if an anomalous target is identified we would be planning for a heritage survey prior to getting a diamond rig on site.
“Southern Hills is particularly interesting because it is located approximately 2km south of the Plato nickel discovery, currently held by Constellation Resources.
“As soon as our geophysical consultants have interpreted the data we will update the market, which is anticipated to be in June. This will be followed by IGO will providing an update on their activity on the nine tenements early in July,” Jon Reynolds says.
The Koongulla Project, and more particularly the Koongulla Dome is located on the eastern edge of the Paterson Province.
The Paterson Province is becoming one of Australia’s most prolific gold-copper regions with Newcrest’s Telfer and Havieron projects and Rio’s Winu project leading the way of many other potential discoveries.
Jon Reynolds says Boadicea has identified a Telfer look-alike dome feature on the eastern edge of the province. It is located approximately 80km from both Havieron and Telfer.
“Progress has been steady with a number of COVID and resourcing challenges being worked through. We have engaged a specialist geologist who is working through the access agreements, access logistics, track construction and native title survey steps.
“This is a period of ‘hard yards’ prior to the drilling of the dome. This is obviously an amazing target for the company and we are striving hard to maintain the momentum to the first drill hole.
“Additionally, we have just committed to an airborne falcon gravity survey for more than 1,300 line kilometres covering the key magnetic targets and more specifically the dome feature. This will finalise the location of the drill holes.
Queensland exploration progress
Boadicea has expanded into Queensland over the past 18 months with a number of low cost exploration applications.
“It has been a watershed period for all of our Queensland tenements. Over the past few months, West Ravenswood and Mt Carmel licences have been granted and the prospecting licence for Hanns Gully has allowed ground access for all tenements.
“In advance of the granted licence we have engaged geological consultants, Map to Mine, based out of Townsville to complete a full historical review and geological reconnaissance of the projects.
“We have now completed initial ground reconnaissance of two projects with some interesting but preliminary results,” Jon Reynolds says.
West Ravenswood
West Ravenswood is located approximately 15km from the Ravenswood gold mine where Boadicea was initially targeting gold, but the historical search has identified the potential for carbonatite hosted Rare Earth Elements in the barrabas granite which is exposed in the licence.
“Geological mapping by Map to Mine during May has located these exposures and we are currently awaiting assays and petrology analysis to determine the REE potential. An update to the market is expected in June.”
Hanns Gully
Hanns Gully is still in the application stage, however, Boadicea has successfully received a three-month prospecting licence to allow surface investigation of the potential. The region is known for expensive primary and alluvial tin within the Esmeralda Granite which covers 100% of the tenement.
“We are interested in the potential for Greisen-style lithium as well as primary tin mineralisation within the Esmeralda granite. Greisen style lithium is a significant global source of lithium with the Cinovec deposit in the Czech Republic being a world class example. No known exploration for lithium within the tenement boundary has been identified.
“Map to Mine completed for an initial site visit last week. I am awaiting the results from that reconnaissance. The results of the visit will be released to the market in June.
Drummond Basin
Boadicea has two granted licences in the Drummond Basin. Clarke Reward and Mt Carmel. Both are potential sources of Mt Coolon / Wirralie style gold mineralisation. Unseasonal rainfall in the district has limited access, but the work completed by Map to Mine has identified two primary gold targets. Additional airborne mag data covering both tenements has been acquired. Interpretation of this data is currently being completed.
Shareholder upside
Boadicea is committed to a very busy period of exploration cutting through a challenging period of COVID, rainfall and resourcing challenges, but it is building to a super active period with a number of key announcements in the pipeline to our shareholders.
“This is obviously being led by the EV metals that are our target with lithium in Bald Hill East and nickel in the Fraser Range. But the potential for rare earth news and our gold targets all provide an exciting period of exploration to grow shareholder value,” Jon Reynolds says.
