Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.
24 September 2018
Strategic Minerals plc
("Strategic Minerals", "SML" or the "Company")
Additional Nickel Sulphide Prospects Identified at Hanns Camp
Strategic Minerals plc (AIM: SML; USOTC: SMCDY), a producing mineral company actively developing projects prospective for battery materials, is pleased to announce the location of three additional targets that are prospective for nickel sulphides at its Hanns Camp project, Western Australia.
The Hanns Camp project is held by the Company's wholly owned subsidiary Central Australian Rare Earths ("CARE").
HIGHLIGHTS
· Hanns Camp South, Royal North and Royal Central have been highlighted as potential Nickel Sulphide targets as a result of the completion and evaluation of results from the air core drilling programme conducted in June 2018.
· Dr. Martin Gole, along with SML's Consultant Geologist Graeme Purcell, reviewed the data and targets in the field and confirmed the potential for lava channel embayment's in the ultramafics which have the potential for hosting nickel sulphide mineralisation.
· The Company has now agreed to ground-based electromagnetic ("EM") surveys across all three targets and expects these activities to be undertaken and reported upon within the December 2018 quarter.
· Funding for the EM surveys will be sourced from the sale proceeds associated with the divestment of the CARE gold tenements.
Commenting, Alan Broome AM, Chairman of Strategic Minerals, said:
"The ongoing work at Hanns Camp continues to deliver new and exciting exploration prospects within our nickel-focused tenement portfolio.
"The recent sale of gold tenements that formed part of the CARE Laverton Project has allowed the Company to principally focus its exploration attention on the potential for nickel sulphides. The Board believes that the Company's tenement portfolio is excellently positioned in Laverton to pursue nickel sulphides, given the province is already host to several world-class deposits
"We look forward to the next phase of exploration in our search for the next nickel sulphide discovery in Western Australia."
CARE Tenements
In 2016, the Company funded a drilling programme at the highly prospective Hanns Camp Prospect located within CARE's Laverton Project. In doing so, it acquired 50% of the ownership of CARE from Rarus Limited. Subsequently, in May 2017, the Company acquired the balance of the ownership of CARE, which is now wholly owned by the Company.
CARE holds 100% tenements in Western Australia and also has access to mining rights for cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements in some tenements.
In September 2018, SML announced an exchange of contracts for 4 exploration tenements in the CARE package which are focused on gold potential. This divestment has allowed the Company to focus its principal exploration activities on the potential for nickel sulphides.
The Laverton Project is located in the Eastern Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia, a region that is most notable for hosting the Mount Windarra and South Windarra nickel sulphide deposits located 12km west of the Laverton Project which together produced 8.1 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.51% nickel (Ni) between 1974 and 1992. Other more recent discoveries in the region, located north and south along trend of the Laverton Project include:
• Duketon Mining's Rosie Deposit that has a mineral resource estimate of 1.74Mt at 1.7% Ni including a best intercept of 5.2 metres at 9.13% Ni, 1.09% copper (Cu) and 2.22grams/ tonne platinum (Pt) from 599.71 metres down hole
• Rox Resources' Fisher East Project (mineral resource 3.6Mt at 2.0% Ni)
• Impact Minerals' Mulga Tank Project which returned a best intercept of 0.25 metres at 3.8% Ni and 0.7% Cu from 212.6 metres down hole.
Hanns Camp Prospectivity and Work Programme
In June 2018, SML completed a 65-hole air core drilling programme of which 25 holes were targeting interpreted favourable geological settings for the formation of nickel sulphides.
The target areas were initially recognised from geological interpretation with coincidental highs in aeromagnetics. The drilling successfully identified ultramafic host rocks that are essential for the development of potential sulphide mineralisation.
Follow up work has confirmed three key targets for further investigation, namely, Hanns Camp South, Royal North and Royal Central.
Dr. Martin Gole, who is a leading expert in ultramafic hosted nickel deposits recently completed a data review and site visit. Dr. Gole summarised that the identified targets have the preferred rock types and characteristics and therefore display potential to be komatiite lava channel embayments, and as such "are highly prospective for nickel sulphide mineralisation."
Based on Dr. Gole's recommendation, the Company will complete a fully funded ground-based EM survey across all three targets, which is planned to commence in the fourth quarter 2018. Results of the EM survey will be released as soon as they become available.
COMPETENT PERSON'S STATEMENT
The exploration results in this announcement are based on information compiled by Mr. Graeme Purcell, who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr Purcell is the Principal of Petrichor Geological and is a consultant to the Company. He has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person, as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves and a qualified person as defined in the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies dated June 2009. Mr Purcell has over 20 years' Australia and international experience in exploration for precious and base metals.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This report contains "forward-looking information" that is based on the Company's expectations, estimates and forecasts as of the date on which the statements were made. This forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements with respect to the Company's business strategy, plans, objectives, performance, outlook, growth, cash flow, earnings per share and shareholder value, projections, targets and expectations, mineral reserves and resources, results of exploration and related expenses, property acquisitions, mine development, mine operations, drilling activity, sampling and other data, grade and recovery levels, future production, capital costs, expenditures for environmental matters, life of mine, completion dates, commodity prices and demand, and currency exchange rates. Generally, this forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "outlook", "anticipate", "project", "target", "likely", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "would", "could", "should", "scheduled", "will", "plan", "forecast" and similar expressions. The forward-looking information is not factual but rather represents only expectations, estimates and/or forecasts about the future and therefore need to be read bearing in mind the risks and uncertainties concerning future events generally.
Notes to Editors
Strategic Minerals Plc is an AIM-quoted, operating minerals company actively developing projects prospective for battery materials. It has an operation in the United States of America and development projects in the UK and Australia. The Company is focused on utilising its operating cash flows, along with capital raisings, to develop high quality projects aimed at supplying the metals and minerals being sought in the burgeoning electric vehicle/battery market.
In September 2011, Strategic Minerals acquired the Cobre magnetite tailings dam project in New Mexico, USA, a cash-generating asset, which it brought into production in 2012 and which continues to provide a revenue stream for the Company. This operating revenue stream is utilised to cover company overheads and invest in development projects orientated to supplying the burgeoning electric vehicle/battery market.
In January 2016, the portfolio was expanded with the acquisition of shares in Central Australian Rare Earths Pty Ltd, which holds tenements in Western Australia and the Northern Territory that are prospective for cobalt, gold, nickel sulphides and rare earth elements. The Company has since acquired all shares in Central Australian Rare Earths Pty Ltd. In September 2018, the Company entered contracts for the sale of certain CARE tenements that have been identified as gold targets.
In May 2016, the Company entered into an agreement with New Age Exploration Limited and, in February 2017, acquired 50% of the Redmoor Tin/Tungsten project in Cornwall, UK. The bulk of the funds from the Company's investment were utilised to complete a drilling programme that year. The drilling programme resulted in a significant upgrade of the resource. Phase 1 of the 2018 drill programme is underway and augurs well for additional drilling to be undertaken.
In March 2018, the Company completed the acquisition of the Leigh Creek Copper Mine situated in the copper rich belt of South Australia and is currently working to bring this into operation in 2019.
