Core Lithium (CXO) - Advanced Lithium Project Finds High-Grade Gold

Core Lithium is well-positioned to be Australia’s next lithium producer, developing one of Australia’s most capital efficient and lowest cost spodumene lithium projects located near Darwin Port in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Their 2019 DFS highlights the production of 175,000t/pa of high-quality lithium concentrate at a C1 Opex of US$300/t and US$50M Capex through simple and efficient DMS (gravity) processing of some of Australia’s highest-grade lithium Mineral Resources

Company VS The Lithium Market: Share Price up by 50%

We catch up again with Stephen Biggins, MD of Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) and since we last spoke 6 weeks ago, their share price is up 50%. The Lithium price has increased and Lithium companies have seen a reaction in the marketplace. The thematic is being proven that EVs - electric vehicles - are going to be the way of moving people around in the future. There are new records of car sales for electric vehicles in China and Europe. The change of government in the US, the Big Green deal in the EU are all aspects that are feeding into the thematic. Also, there are very few advanced Lithium projects around the globe that are construction-ready, or as construction-ready as Core Lithium is. There is a strong interest from financial investors and also strategic miners in the Lithium sector. 

Core Lithium is developing the Finniss Lithium project near Darwin in the Northern Territory. It's one of Australia's most capital-efficient projects – AUD$85M start-up Capex to produce AUD$160M-worth of revenue from producing 175,000t of high-quality Spodumene. It's not only one of the most capital efficient projects, it has the best logistics chain to markets in Asia. It is 25km away from the port and from the infrastructure of Darwin.

When we last spoke to Core Lithium, we talked about the business plan, the strategy, all the moving parts and the partners that are in place and since then, they have been busy drilling. They have done the resource drilling on the project with 3 rigs active over the last couple of months. They should be finishing those programs successfully by the end of 2020. They'll have resource drilling results out shortly after that and a resource upgrade which will feed into their objective to update the Feasibility Study for the project early in the first half of 2021.

The drill results will be out in January and the resource announcement will come shortly after that. They expect that their Feasibility Study will come out in the first quarter, with the objective that they've been using that as a launch pad to target the final investment decision for the project.

Exciting Gold Discoveries Changing Plans

Core Lithium’s new Gold project is getting exciting as they have delivered some good early-stage results and the results that they released from the Bynoe Gold project are really substantial and show that they've got a large Gold system at play. They have found 80 Gold nuggets over a 1.5km strike length. There is a Gold-quartz vein system that's 150m wide. The Gold target is only 3-4km away from the main Lithium project. The resource drilling is almost complete with a few more holes to drill before Christmas, and they are expecting some pretty exciting results for their shareholders.

This gold prospect has upside for the Core Lithium shareholders. They are very much focused on delivering the Finniss Lithium project and have been dedicated to that for the last 5-years, so are not going to stop that, but they have something that's so close to that project, where their geologists can easily work, they will add value because they think there is some really exciting upside.

Once they see what the drill results come up with, they will discuss where they are going. Will they look to monetise it? Will they bring in a JV partner or do it themselves?   

Finniss Lithium Project: Big Moment Timeline for 2021

The drill results for the Finniss Lithium project are coming out in January, and a resource upgrade shortly after that. They are looking to target the release of the updated Feasibility Study towards the end of Q1/21, which is about preparing the project and the company for targeting the final investment decision around the middle of next year. The markets are open. Access to equity capital is there and there is a real enthusiasm from investors, retail, institutional and strategic now that the mining industry is getting into the Lithium sector whilst they can.

The company's share price is moving up on really high volumes as the investment markets recognise that there are very few high-quality Lithium plays to get exposed to. There's a lot of interest in Lithium stocks, particularly in Core, because they're the most advanced Lithium project in Australia. And now with their gold project catching the eye, Core Lithium is looks like one of the companies to watch in 2021. 

To find out more, go to Core Lithium's website.