Caeneus to relaunch US lithium hunt

With the lithium market heating up exponentially, Caeneus Minerals has abandoned its thoughts of potentially selling its lithium brine projects in Nevada USA in favour of further exploration. The projects are in North America’s only lithium brine producing region and the company says limited historical drilling points to the presence of lithium brines on its ground.

Caeneus says an historical data review of its wholly owned Columbus Marsh and Rhodes Marsh lithium brine projects has suggested further exploration could deliver more value that a straight sale at this point in time.

The Perth-based company says its US lithium hunt will be steered by its Australian technical team and a band of North American-based geological consultants. The latter has been appointed to conduct on the ground activities given the current cross-border challenges and COVID-induced travel restrictions.

Caeneus says its renewed US lithium pursuit will initially see it acquire additional geophysical data ahead of a planned drilling campaign. To-date the company has put down only a single hole at Columbus Marsh and the Rhodes Marsh project area is yet to feel the drill bit.

The single hole at Columbus Marsh, sunk in 2017, was drilled following on from a localised gravity and magnetotelluric survey. Assay analysis from the hole lifted the veil on a potentially underlying brine, with results ranging between 56 milligrams per litre and 96 mg/l.

Caeneus says it considers these historical results to be “encouraging” and subsequent drilling will be aimed at testing the region’s other untried geophysical and stratigraphic features.

The Board has carefully considered alternatives such as divestment though sale, joint venture or a spin-out, however, in light of the world’s continued demand for lithium and the significant untested potential across both projects, we firmly believe that the best value for shareholders can be achieved by focussing on near-term exploration and development, managed by our existing team. With the on-going activities across our Pilbara gold projects in the Mallina Basin and our renewed interest in lithium, we look forward to an exciting time ahead for CAD shareholders!

Closer to its Australian homebase, Caeneus is steadily progressing its Roberts Hill gold project in the Pilbara where the company has been peppering its WA landholdings over the last few months.

Intriguingly, the Roberts Hill project sits only 5km from De Grey’s pulse-raising Hemi gold discovery that kicked off a modern-day gold rush after its discovery a year or two ago.

Caeneus’ decision to relaunch lithium exploration in the US looks to be in response to the enormous global demand for everything associated with battery metals at present.

The fact that its projects are located in North America’s only lithium brine producing region is very relevant and any sniff of grade in any subsequent exploration will set a few tongues wagging in the board rooms of West Perth.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au