Infini Resources has vowed to come out all guns blazing with eight projects focused on uranium and lithium in both Canada and Western Australia after hitting the boards at the ASX this morning.
The newly-listed explorer has built a diverse swag of energy metal holdings in top-tier jurisdictions spanning two continents where it is targeting opportunities underpinned by highly-prospective geology.
The company holds tenements across four Canadian provinces with its Portland Creek, Tinco and Des Herbiers projects accounting for its uranium exploration pursuits, while its Patterson Lake and Valor operations make up its North American lithium ventures. In Western Australia, it also holds the Pegasus and Parna lithium projects in addition to the Yeelirrie North uranium enterprise.
Infini’s wholly-owned Portland Creek takes in three mining claims across 108 square kilometres in the Canadian province of Newfoundland where grab samples returned impressive results of up to 2180 parts per million uranium oxide.
The operation sits on a large regional uranium anomaly that was identified in the 1970s by a Newfoundland Government stream sediment sampling program. In 1976, a diamond drilling campaign was conducted by Eldorado Nuclear in the Portland Creek Pond Area to test for uranium mineralisation in fault zones.
However, Infini believes the area is defined by two big and underexplored lake sediment geochemical anomalies where no modern exploration has been conducted. Newfoundland was ranked as one of the top-10 mining investment jurisdictions by the Fraser Institute’s latest annual survey of mining companies and is known to be in favour of uranium exploration.
The Tinco Project area lies to the south-south/west of the Athabasca Basin covering about 7590 hectares on crown land in north-eastern Saskatchewan. The site incorporates two mining claims, with Infini holding 100 per cent of the South Tinco prospect and 50 per cent of the North Tinco target.
Previous geological mapping has identified lenses of radioactive pegmatites up to 1.5m in width, with grab samples revealing grades of up to 600ppm uranium oxide while, interestingly, the assays also showed a highly-anomalous and coincident niobium result of 0.5 per cent. Plans are already in place to establish a base camp at the underexplored operation, with sampling and surveys also in the works.
The Athabasca Basin is considered the world’s highest-grade source of uranium, with an average grade of 2 per cent uranium oxide – more than 10 times the global average.
The final two uranium projects on Infini’s books are the Des Herbiers deposit in Quebec and the Yeelirrie North project in WA.
Des Herbiers already holds a JORC-classified inferred mineral resource of 162 million tonnes at 123ppm uranium oxide for almost 44 million pounds of the resource based on more than 50,000m of drilling conducted between 2007 and 2009. However, the company has also highlighted 17 high-priority targets that are yet to be drill-tested.
Yeelirrie North sits about 70km south-west of the WA town of Wiluna across around 220sq km from the northern extremity of the Archaean Norseman Wiluna greenstone belt of the Yilgarn Craton. While the area has been previously explored for nickel and uranium, management says only limited work has been undertaken in recent years.
With uranium prices currently enjoying a 16-year high at about US$92.50 (AU$138.40) per pound, Infini could well be sitting in the box seat at just the right time with its impressive swag of projects.
And its lithium portfolio is similarly stacked with its 100 per cent-owned Paterson Lake project in the Canadian province of Ontario located directly adjacent to Avalon Adavnced Materials’ Separation Rapids deposit that hosts 10 million tonnes grading 1.35 per cent lithium oxide. Avalon has recorded some impressive drill hits at its operation, including a best intercept at a massive 565m going 1.5 per cent lithium oxide.
Paterson Lake takes in 106 minerals claims across 12sq km and includes the Marko’s and Jesse’s mineralised pegmatites.
The Marko’s target has a strike length of 268m on the surface and remains open to the west. Infini has reported a raft of grab samples from the prospect with grades of more than 2 per cent lithium oxide. It includes 13 grab samples grading between 3.35 per cent and an impressive peak of 4.43 per cent lithium oxide.
The Jesse’s prospect has a current mineralised strike of 190m on the surface and remains open to both the east and the west. The pegmatite cluster includes the North Dyke, North-Central Dyke, Central Dyke and South Dyke targets.
Outcropping pegmatites up to 30m wide have been highlighted at the surface, with four grab samples returning grades of more than 2 per cent lithium oxide and a peak of 3.26 per cent lithium oxide.
Across the provincial border in Quebec, Infini’s Valor project takes in 229 mineral claims across 124sq-km. The holdings are within shouting distance of Sayona Mining’s Authier lithium deposit that hosts 14.1 million tonnes at 1.01 per cent lithium oxide.
Management says the project covers one of the biggest land packages in the highly-prospective Abitib region and has the potential to include extensions to the lithium-bearing Ascot Dyke. Several pegmatites and aplite dykes have been reported from the property during molybdenite, beryl, lithium and tantalum exploration. Lithium-bearing pegmatites discovered at the adjacent Authier property are generally composed of quartz monzonite.
Infini’s two WA-based lithium operations are also in good neighbourhoods. The 120sq-km Pegasus project is adjacent to Bulletin Resources’ lithium site where spodumene-bearing outcrops have returned samples of up to 4.81 per cent lithium oxide.
Management considers Pegasus to be prospective for hard-rock lithium-tantalum mineralisation based on geological and structural similarities to Allkem’s Mt Cattlin lithium deposit that sits about 10km to the east. Plans are already in place for a soil sampling and reverse-circulation (RC) drill campaign at the project, which is some 15km south-east of Ravensthorpe in WA’s Goldfields region.
Parna is within 35km of Essential Metals’ Dome lithium project that hosts 11.2 million tonnes at a solid 1.16 per cent lithium oxide. Infini says Parna is an underexplored project in a poorly-understood part of the Yilgarn Craton granites where there has been no previous testing for lithium-caesium-tantalum pathfinders. The tenements cover 144sq km about 15km east of the town of Norseman.
There is little doubt Infini would have been watching as another newly-listed lithium explorer, Kali Metals, caused a share price stir on its ASX listing last week. The Kalamazoo Resources’ spin-out company attracted immediate attention after raising its maximum subscription of $15 million before its stock touched as high as 89c – an increase of 256 per cent from its initial public offering price of 25c.
With an incredibly diverse portfolio in the growing energy metals sphere located in top-tier locations in both Canda and Western Australia, Infini could well be the next emerging explorer to capture the attention of ASX traders.
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