Alchemy Resources (ASX:ALY) has locked in a farm-in and joint venture deal for its Roe Hills Project in Western Australia with the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC).
JOGMEC can earn up to a 51% interest in the Roe Hills tenure, covering 248km2 of Alchemy’s 694km2 Karonie Lithium and Gold Project, by spending up to $6 million on exploration by the end of March 2029.
Alchemy will act as operator for the duration of the farm-in period, during which time JOGMEC must spend at least $600,000 by 31 March 2025.
JOGMEC is a Japanese government incorporated administrative agency tasked with securing stable resource supplies for Japan.
The Tokyo-headquartered agency has an annual budget for 2024 of ¥2.38 billion ($24.06 billion) and equity capital of ¥1.49 billion as of July 2024.
CEO James Wilson says the deal is a “great endorsement” for the Karonie project, which is considered “highly prospective” for lithium mineralisation similar to Global Lithium Resources’ (ASX:GL1) neighbouring Manna Lithium Deposit.
“The farm-in and JV deal gives a clear path for exploration at Roe Hills in the medium term, and along with our existing gold exploration plans in the region, provides JOGMEC and Alchemy the best opportunity for exploration success in the region,” he says.
“Exploration has been ongoing through the year and has resulted in the delineation of several priority targets which we plan on testing once the requisite approvals are in place.”
Roe Hills sits along a distinctive structural trend from the pegmatite field that hosts the Manna Lithium Deposit, which hosts a resource of 51.6 million tonnes @ 1% lithium, 5km to the northeast.
Mapping done by the Geological Survey of Western Australia has identified a high-density of narrow plagioclase dykes, porphyritic dykes and quartz veins adjacent to a granite contact zone.
Multi-element soil sampling conducted by Alchemy in 2018-2024 highlighted multiple areas of low-level lithium anomalism and coincident pathfinder anomalism across a broad strike extent.
Soil sampling was recently carried out at Roe Hills to generate a complete dataset on the western side of the Cardunia Granite, adjacent to the Manna lithium deposit.
Wide spaced soil sampling was first completed in 2019 and identified several lithium pathfinder anomalies.
Alchemy says more recent follow up soil sampling uncovered multiple large-scale anomalies within a 15km by 3km zone, a 12km by 6km zone and a third area of 3.5km by 3.5km.
Alchemy, which has a market capitalisation of $8.2 million, has a land package in the Carosue Dam – Karonie greenstone belt in the Eastern Goldfields region in Western Australia.
The junior explorer has an 80% interest in the Lachlan/Cobar Basin Projects in New South Wales and an interest in the Bryah Basin Project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, where Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) is continuing to advance gold exploration.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Alchemy Resources
