Australian minerals explorer Chalice Gold Mines Ltd has embarked on a new growth opportunity in the battery metals exploration sector after securing two well located and highly prospective Australian vanadium-nickel exploration projects, one of which is in North West Queensland.
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The company has successfully applied for a suite of exploration licences in the Richmond region, known as the Flinders River Vanadium Project and also in the Julimar region, located just outside of Perth, giving it a highly prospective entry point into the battery metals exploration space with easily accessible exploration targets.
The Flinders River Vanadium Project is located in two sections 250-400 km east of Mount Isa and is strategically located within close proximity to the Flinders Highway and Northern Railway that connects to the port of Townsville.
The region is highly prospective for sedimentary-hosted vanadium mineralisation, with globally significant vanadium resources already reported by Intermin Resources and Multicom Resources.
Intermin and Multicom’s vanadium resources are considered to be some of the world’s largest and occur within 30 km of Chalice’s application permits.
Importantly, the vanadium resources reported by Intermin and Multicom share a similar radiometric response with exploration targets seen on the Chalice permits – interpreted to be mapping the presence of shale rich Toolebuc formation.
Known vanadium mineralisation within the Toolebuc formation typically occurs near surface within oxidised coarse limestone-rich clay and underlying fine-grained carbonate shales where enrichment of vanadium, along within other metals (molybdenum, nickel and copper), has occurred through sedimentary processes.
The advantage of these deposits include simple, shallow mining, low processing cost and proximity to infrastructure.
Chalice expects the applications to be granted in the third quarter this year, and will immediately commence field reconnaissance work.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
