Australian resource company TNG (ASX: TNG) has secured the extensive Sandover lithium exploration project, 50 kilometres southeast of its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron development in the Northern Territory.
The project comprises two large tenement packages collectively known as the ‘Sandover Licences’, covering 8151 square kilometres of the Northern Arunta Pegmatite Province which is considered highly prospective for lithium in pegmatites.
The western block is comprised of exploration licence applications 33090 and 33094 through to 33100, while the eastern block has ELAs 33102 through to 33106.
Sandover was acquired from private prospectors for consideration of $25,000 per granted licence paid on transfer.
TNG has been completing its due diligence on the licences since February.
Logical addition
Managing director Paul Burton said Sandover was a “logical addition” to Mount Peake.
“This area represents, in all likelihood, one of the last areas that are prospective for lithium in the Northern Territory,” he said.
“While we remain fully focused on developing Mount Peake, we are also building our growth portfolio in battery-related and future strategic metals… we want to be positioned to take advantage of this surge in demand for both elements.”
Growth opportunity
Sandover is believed to represent a potentially strategic growth opportunity which would complement TNG’s long-term critical minerals growth strategy.
The project’s Anningie and Barrow Creek pegmatite fields, to the north of the western block, were first recognised in the mid-1930s and produced small-scale cassiterite and tantalite concentrate mostly from alluvial material through to the 1970s.
While some tin and tantalum exploration was carried out from 1980 to 2000, it was not until the ‘lithium boom’ year of 2016 that any effort was put in to identifying lithium-bearing pegmatites.
Several companies are now exploring the Northern Arunta Pegmatite Province for lithium-bearing pegmatites, including Askari Metals (ASX: AS2), Eastern Metals (ASX: EMS) and Core Lithium (ASX: CXO).
TNG intends to explore for the same mineralisation using traditional rock chip and soil sampling methods in areas with outcrop or residual soils.
This will be augmented with remote sensing exploration techniques to rapidly locate pegmatites at surface and beneath thin sand cover.
Recent work by the Northern Territory Geological Survey deemed the Sandover area to be also prospective for sediment-hosted copper and iron oxide copper gold deposits.
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