Havilah Resources (ASX:HAV) has discovered molybdenum via drilling at the NDC prospect near the Kalkaroo deposit in South Australia.
Molybdenum is identified as a critical mineral and is widely used as a refractory metal in chemical applications and in structural steel, aircraft, and automobile parts.
According to Havilah, the molybdenum price is historically volatile, as it reached more than US$90,000 ($135,115) per tonne during February 2023 from a low of nearly US$17,000 per tonne in August 2020.
The spot price currently sits at about US$69,000 per tonne, which is a 60% increase since the start of this year.
Havilah, which has a market capitalisation of $71.24 million, reports drilling returned 30m @ 0.21% molybdenum from 150m, plus associated copper up to 0.36%, gold up to 0.82 grams per tonne, uranium up to 295 parts per million (ppm), and yttrium and dysprosium up to 308ppm and 39ppm, respectively.
Technical Director Chris Giles says the company was following up on widespread anomalous copper results from earlier shallow 1997 Newcrest aircore drilling.
“Molybdenum grades of 0.21% would be considered as exceptional compared with the sub-0.05% resource grades in many of the large porphyry deposits, which are currently the chief source of molybdenum,” he says.
“This, combined with the approximately 12km of untested K2 unit prospective strike around the dome, highlights the discovery possibilities at the NDC prospect, including for the hitherto unexpected molybdenum.”
The NDC prospect lies 10km north-northwest of the Kalkaroo deposit in the Curnamona province of northeastern South Australia.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Havilah Resources & Stock
