OCTAVA MINERALS

(ASX:OCT)

Company Profile

Octava Minerals has wasted no time developing its project portfolio with exposure to clean energy critical minerals and gold in proven discovery areas since listing in September.

OCT’s key asset is the Talga lithium project, within the East Pilbara’s world-class hard rock lithium discovery region where projects of fine pedigree abound.

Talga is just 10km north of Global Lithium’s (ASX:GL1) Archer resource of 18 million tonnes at 1% lithium oxide. It is also geologically analogous to Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) Pilgangoora lithium mine, with a resource of 309Mt at 1.14% lithium oxide, 100km to the west.

Since exploration started at Talga in

October, Octava has identified an ~1.5km length pegmatite zone where lithium mineralisation has previously been recorded, as well as multiple new pegmatites with visible indications of lithium mineralisation at the Pinnacle Well prospect. Drilling at the prospect is set to start in Q1 as OCT’s analysis of the project continues.

Talga also has gold potential in an impressive neighbourhood for the yellow metal. Previous exploration of the area has encountered widespread gold and base metal anomalism.

On the gold front, OCT plans to bring in the drill rigs in Q2 this year at two identified priority prospects – Razorback and Cord. These are in the same greenstone stratigraphy and structures as Calidus Resources’ (ASX: CAI) nearby Warrawoona gold mine (1.5 million ounces) and Haoma Mining’s Bamboo Creek gold mine.

At Global Lithium’s (ASX:GL1) Twin Veins prospect, again just 10km to the west, drilling uncovered 12m at 2.95 grams per tonne of gold from a shallow 37m.

Octava’s East Kimberley project comprises Panton North and Copernicus North tenements in the Halls Creek Orogen, a tier one nickel sulphide-platinum group metal province. OCT’s project is right next door to Future Metals’ (ASX:FME) Panton PGM project, which has a 6.9Moz palladium equivalent resource which includes nickel and cobalt, as well as PGMs.

In January Octava and FME announced a

JV agreement. FME will earn up to a 70% interest in Panton North and Copernicus North by free-carrying Octava through to a decision to mine – sole-funding a minimum $2 million worth of exploration over four years.

Results from previous explorers at Yallalong in the West Murchison show it to be prospective for gold, nickel, copper, PGM and rare earth element mineralisation.

The project has a similar geological setting to projects such as Chalice’s (ASX:CHN) Julimar discovery.

Octava is led by a team with more than 40 years’ experience in developing successful resources projects, including Damon O’Meara, non-executive director of Narryer Metals (ASX:NYM) and First Au (ASX:FAU), and Clayton Dodd, who until recently was executive chairman of Podium Minerals (ASX:POD), another platinum group metals explorer developing a project in WA’s Mid-West. CEO and managing director Bevan Wakelam is an experienced geologist and resource marketing executive, who has worked with Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) and played a key role in the start-up team at Roy Hill Iron Ore.

Key Points

◾ Company Name: Taiton Resources

◾ Company ASX code: T88

◾ Key Commodities: Gold

◾ Key Personnel: Datuk Siak Wei Low, Non-Executive Chairman | Noel Ong, Managing Director

◾ Locations: Western Australia, South Australia

◾ Market Cap as of 25/01/23:

$15.69M

◾ 52-Week Share Price Range at 25/01/23: $0.190 - $0.250

◾ W: taiton.com.au

Investment Highlights

◾ Newly ASX-listed early-stage explorer focused on discovering large-scale mineral deposits in South Australia and Western Australia utilising funds raised from a successful $7 million IPO.

◾ Dominant landholding at the Highway project underpinned by the same mineralised system that hosts the major Olympic Dam polymetallic mine in South Australia’s Gawler Craton.

◾ Potentially new mineral-rich district in central South Australia with high metallogenic potential and large volume deposits.

Noel Ong Managing Director

Taiton Resources

(ASX:T88)

COMPANY PROFILE

Taiton Resources celebrated the end of 2022 with a milestone ASX debut following a successful IPO that raised over $7 million.

The early-stage explorer has assembled a portfolio of highly prospective projects in mineral-rich regions of Western Australia and South Australia.

Most notably, Taiton’s Highway project hosts part of the same major mineralised system that underpins BHP’s massive Olympic Dam polymetallic mine in South Australia’s Gawler Craton.

The Gawler Craton is an extremely fertile region that has yielded numerous economic discoveries of gold, diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore, and uranium along with other minerals.

Demonstrating the potential of the region, the Olympic Dam mine is the fourth largest copper deposit and the largest known single deposit of uranium in the world.

Other major projects located in the Gawler Craton include the Prominent Hill mine, which produces one of the highest grades of copper concentrate on the market, and the Carrapateena copper-gold-silver deposit, one of the largest mining projects in South Australia in the last decade.

So, there is vast exploration blue sky for Taiton to work with. The company believes central South Australia, where the Highway project is located, could potentially be a new mineral district with high metallogenic potential and large volume deposits.

T88’s other South Australian gem is known as the Challenger West project, which is located close to the well-established and pastoperating Challenger gold mine.

Discovered in 1995, the Challenger mine produced ~1.2 million ounces of gold between 2002 and 2018 from the 650,000-tonne-perannum processing plant, which is the jewel in the crown for emerging gold producers in the region because it has the potential to be restarted and positioned as a regional processing hub.

Taiton was the lucky last explorer permitted to enter the area before the South Australian government placed restrictions on new applications.

In Western Australia, Taiton has established a foothold in the Lake Barlee region, which is situated in the Yilgarn Craton, a large mineral-rich area that has spawned numerous major mines over the past few centuries and has been described as “Australia’s premier gold and nickel province”.

T88 has an extensive database of historical exploration data generated by several explorers over the past three decades. This data comprises drilling results showing significant levels of gold and other polymetallic mineralisation. The cash raised in the recent IPO will be used to systematically explore the three projects, with the goal being to unearth the next major mine.

Taiton has already identified several walkup drill targets that it plans to investigate in the current exploration program. The newly minted company is also focused on creating shareholder value through acquisitions and is keeping an eye out for attractive exploration and development opportunities that complement its existing portfolio and provide strong potential for growth.

Key Points

◾ Company Name: Sarama Resources

◾ Company ASX code: SRR

◾ Key Commodities: Gold

◾ Key Personnel: Andrew Dinning, Managing Director & CEO Simon Jackson, Non-Executive Chairman

◾ Locations: Houndé belt, Burkina Faso

◾ Market Cap as of 25/01/23: $18.61M

◾ 52-Week Share Price Range at 25/01/23: $0.090 - $0.225

◾ W: saramaresources.com

Investment Highlights

◾ 100% owned land position in the heart of two prolific gold belts in SW Burkina Faso, with the Sanutura Project hosting a very large, gold-camp-sized mineralising system.

◾ Value underpinned by a multi-millionounce pit-constrained resource, where a third is in oxides and two-thirds is over 2g/t.

◾ First 20,000m of current 50,000m drilling campaign has intersected multiple areas of near-surface, highgrade oxide mineralisation proximal to but outside the current resource, paving the way for a near-term resource upgrade.

ANDREW DINNING

DIRECTOR & CEO

MANAGING

Sarama Resources

(ASX:SRR)

Company Profile

Sarama Resources is focused on establishing a new mining district in southwest Burkina Faso having accumulated a large, strategic landholding that forms a major part of a multi-millionounce regional camp.

The West African gold developer has a controlling position along 70km of the Houndé belt, the most prolific gold belt in Burkina Faso, and one of the most fertile gold belts in West Africa, with the southern end alone having a gold endowment over 20 million ounces.

Sarama’s flagship Sanutura project lies just 60km south of Endeavour Mining’s 5Moz Houndé mine, 120km south of Fortuna Silver’s high-grade

+1Moz Yaramoko mine and 140km south of Endeavour Mining’s 5Moz Mana mine.

Despite these substantial deposits, the belt remains relatively underexplored.

TSX-V listed Sarama, which was listed on the ASX in mid-2022, has already established a substantial ~3Moz resource –of which a third is oxide and two thirds is over 2 grams per tonne.

The Sanutura resource comprises a significant high-grade and oxide component that will underwrite project development and reduce up-front development capital and risk.

Having completed 40% of a +50,000m shallow oxide-focused program, Sarama has so far delivered seven new discoveries outside the existing resource with multiple areas of additional near-surface, high-grade mineralisation uncovered.

The current exploration program is designed to materially upgrade the value and quality of the resource.

The results of the program support the company’s thesis that there is still a significant amount of gold to be discovered near the existing resource.

Sarama is targeting >1Moz of pit-shell constrained oxide resource upon completion of the program.

The Sanutura project is already at a scale that will support a robust economic development, exploiting the large oxide resource and favourable grade profile, which will allow for a simple, scalable, and staged CIL development off a modest capital base.

There is significant regional consolidation opportunity to create a major gold camp, with Sanutura positioned to play a pivotal role in the consolidation and development of the Southern Houndé belt, which is dominated by Sarama and Endeavour Mining.

The regional consolidation opportunity primarily comprises the 0.7Moz Karankasso Project, a joint venture between Endeavour and Sarama, along with Endeavour’s 1.5Moz Bantou project – both of which sit adjacent to Sanutura, creating the potential for a combined +5Moz gold project with 2400sq km of highly prospective ground.

Despite the extensive value of Sarama’s large West African ground position, the company is one of the most undervalued gold stocks on the ASX and TSX-V markets and has significant upside potential with scope to be valued at multiples of the current levels, managing director Andrew Dinning says.

Dinning was previously President of Moto Gold Mines, which discovered the 22Moz Kibali deposit in the DRC – a company which was acquired by Randgold and AngloGold Ashanti for US$600 million in 2009.

KEY POINTS

◾ Company Name: West Cobar Metals

◾ Company ASX code: WC1

◾ Key Commodities: Rare earths, lithium, copper, gold

◾ Key Personnel: Robert Klug, Non-Executive Chairman | Kevin Das, Executive Director | David Pascoe, CEO

◾ Locations: Western Australia, Northern Territory & New South Wales

◾ Market Cap as of 25/01/23: $16.71M

◾ 52-Week Share Price Range at 25/01/23: $0.095 - $0.335

◾ W: westcobarmetals.com.au

INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS

DECEMBER 12: Extensive first phase of 9000m aircore drill program commences, designed to extend the inferred resource at the Newmont REE deposit and explore other parts of Salazar. Assays expected Q1 2023.

NOVEMBER 7: Exploration target of 200-500Mt of 1000-1400 parts per million total rare earth oxide established, highlighting potential to extend Salazar inferred resource.

OCTOBER 31: WC1 completes acquisition of the Salazar rare earth element clay project with an inferred JORC resource of 43.5 million tonnes at 1192ppm TREO.

KEVIN DAS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

West Cobar Metals

(ASX:WC1)

COMPANY PROFILE

West Cobar is fast tracking the development of its Salazar project, which features some of the highest grade clay-hosted rare earth element (REE) resources ever discovered in Australia.

This exciting REE project, acquired last October, comes with more than eight years of exploration data, as well as metallurgical and technical studies. It also offers substantial potential to extend resources at a time of rapidly escalating demand for REEs.

Acquired from privately owned Salazar Minerals, the project is located on nonagricultural undeveloped state land close to port, rail and air services, and only 120km from the deep water port of Esperance in Western Australia’s south.

The most advanced of the Salazar prospects, Newmont, already boasts an inferred mineral resource of 43.5 million tonnes at 1192ppm total rare earth oxide and features low levels of uranium and thorium. The Newmont deposit also includes a high-grade alumina zone with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 3.4Mt of 31% Al2O3.

Now an exploration target of 200-500Mt of 1000-1400ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO) has been established, and an aircore drilling program is underway. The aim of the program is to both increase the inferred resource at Newmont and to delineate areas where additional inferred resources can be defined at Newmont, plus explore the O’Connor licence area within the project.

West Cobar has engaged The ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals (COEMinerals) and Nagrom to carry out metallurgical testwork and optimisation studies concurrently, to keep the project moving forward at a steady pace.

The rare earth mineralisation at Salazar is clay-hosted, making it amenable to mine using conventional open pit methods, without the need for crushing and blasting using explosives.

Most of the project’s value will be derived from high-value magnet rare earths –neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium oxides. These are critical for high performance permanent magnets that are essential for clean-energy products such as

EVs and wind turbines. Testwork at the Newmont deposit has shown that radioactive elements uranium and thorium are at very low levels. At higher levels, these elements can be problematic for rare earth projects due to the treatment of radioactive elements.

Another recent addition to West Cobar’s project portfolio is the 667sq km EL33208 tenement in the Northern Territory, Litchfield Province.

Known as the Hermit Hill Project, EL33208 was granted just before Christmas and is being assessed for its lithium prospectivity given it lies in the same region as Core Lithium’s Finniss Project and Ragusa Minerals’ Tank Hill lithium discovery.

West Cobar has a further three projects at various stages of exploration 100-200km west of Cobar, including Bulla Park Project (copper and silver); Cawkers Well (gold); and Nantilla (copper, base metals, and gold). The company is led by a highly experienced team with a strong track record in the resources sector.