Leading mineral exploration company, Voltaic Strategic Resources Limited, is boosting supply chains of critical materials by advancing its lithium, rare earth elements (REEs), gold, and nickel-copper-cobalt projects.
Voltaic is an Australian-listed (ASX) company which holds an exciting and diverse portfolio of strategic mineral exploration opportunities that have the potential to yield the critical materials required to power a net zero future. The Company’s primary exploration assets are located in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia, and include the Paddys Well REE project, the Ti Tree lithium project, along with others, including a nickel-copper-cobalt project in Nevada, USA and the Meekatharra (W. Australia) gold project.
The Company focuses on sourcing strategic minerals (Rare Earth Elements and Lithium) that will be critical to powering the green transition by using cutting-edge exploration techniques in under-explored areas, both sustainably and ethically.
Rare earth elements are critical to power the green transition
Rare earth elements are a group of 17 metallic elements essential in manufacturing high-grade magnets, which are essential components in a range of components, including wind turbines and electric motors, that are key to the energy transition.
However, REEs are not just essential to the global clean energy transition but also in multiple industries that are seen as having critical importance by local and national governments worldwide, as they are also vital In computer hardware, defence and aerospace, medical technology, and ceramics.
Despite their collective name, rare earths are abundant In nature and are more plentiful than gold, platinum and silver. What makes REEs ‘rare’ is the fact that it is not common for them to occur in concentrations sufficient to support commercial mining operations, and, until recently, most deposits were not commercially viable due to their capital-intensive refining processes.
Lithium as a key component in energy storage
Energy storage continues to be at the forefront of the successful transition to global electrification and batteries that contain lithium are still at the leading edge of the energy storage solutions in terms of cost and efficiency. Lithium is a highly reactive metal, which means that it has a high energy density, or the amount of energy it can store per unit of weight or volume. In addition, lithium is a very lightweight metal, which means that it is ideal for use in portable devices such as smartphones and laptops. It also has a high electrochemical potential, which allows it to provide a high voltage and long-lasting power output. Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable and can be recharged many times before their performance starts to degrade, which makes them cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
The global demand for lithium continues to grow. Exploration for lithium deposits mined sustainably and economically will continue to be critically important for the successful transition to green energy.
Potential of the Paddys Well REE and Ti Tree Lithium projects
The Paddys Well and Ti Tree projects are located in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, approximately 800km north of Perth, famous for being richly imbued with mineral deposits – most notably, gold, copper, lead, zinc, lithium and rare earth elements. Voltaic holds exploration licenses (granted and under application) that cover an area of 2,184 km2 in the Gascoyne region, of which the Paddys Well project comprises 1,643 km2 and the Ti Tree project covers 212 km2.
The Paddys Well REE project comprises one granted exploration licence and five exploration licence applications located approximately 200 km east of the town of Carnarvon in Western Australia. Paddys Well is within close proximity of Hastings Technology Metals Ltd’s Yangibana REE project (approximately 100 km to the north-east), Dreadnought Resources Ltd’s Mangaroon REE project (approximately 60 km to the north) and along strike and contiguous to Kingfisher Mining Ltd’s Micks Well REE project.
The REE project area encompasses a portion of the Gascoyne Province of the Capricorn Orogen, between the Archaean Yilgarn Craton to the south, and the Archaean Pilbara Craton to the north. The Gascoyne Province, which consists of a suite of Archaean to Proterozoic gneisses, granitic and metasedimentary rocks, is overlain by the Paleoproterozoic Ashburton Formation to the north, the Mesoproterozoic Edmund and Collier Basins to the east, and the Phanerozoic Carnarvon Basin to the west. REE discoveries in the Gascoyne Province are commonly located close to major crustal boundary faults and contained within iron-rich carbonatite dykes and intrusions.
The Paddys Well project area is considered highly prospective for REE mineralisation hosted in iron-rich carbonatite dykes or intrusions as well as clay-hosted REE mineralisation. Historical exploration has identified highly anomalous REE mineralisation from drilling within E 09/2414, and there are also several coincident magnetic & radiometric anomalies.
The Ti Tree lithium project comprises one granted exploration licence and two exploration licence applications, and is located approximately 260 km north-east of the town of Carnavaron in Western Australia. The project area is located within a south-east trending belt in the Gascoyne Province of the Capricorn Orogen that is prospective for pegmatite-associated minerals and REEs.
The Ti Tree tenure overlays an interpreted prospective corridor of lithium-bearing pegmatites where recent exploration efforts have discovered the Yinnietharra (formerly ‘Malinda’) lithium prospect (currently owned by Red Dirt Metals Ltd) where drill intercepts include 56m @ 1.12% Li2O with at least six regional intercepts > 1% Li2O. The Ti Tree project has seen a limited amount of exploration to date, although the presence of multiple outcropping LCT-bearing pegmatites has been confirmed with excellent grades and widths of spodumene-bearing mineralisation intercepted. Significant intervals of near-surface mineralisation have been identified with lithium-bearing pegmatites collected from surface outcrops with little discernible depletion and leaching of lithium within the shallow weathering profile.
Voltaic will focus its exploration efforts on the Paddys Well and Ti Tree projects, where there is a strong prospective for the discovery of Lithium and REEs but has a range of other exploration projects in Western Australia and Nevada, USA.
Source: Innovation
