This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Redstone Resources Ltd. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Of the companies likely to be strapping in for a big one in 2024, Redstone Resources (ASX:RDS) — freshly on the other side of a busy year in 2023 — is surely one.
Not only did the Perth-based explorer make good headway at its flagship West Musgrave Project in Western Australia, but it added a suite of Canadian lithium assets to its portfolio, ushering in — according to Redstone’s annual report published at the end of October — “a transformational period for the company.”
The deployment of a greater focus on lithium, Redstone added, falls in line with its broader plans to establish itself as an emergent player in the battery minerals game. But in order to understand that aspiration and just how achievable it might be, one needs to understand how Redstone got here in the first place.
From Western Australia…
Located in the southeast portion of WA’s West Musgrave region, just 40km east of BHP’s (ASX:BHP) major Nebo-Babel deposit, the West Musgrave Project has been the nucleus of Redstone’s portfolio since it listed in 2006, and even since the company was established in 1999.
Of primary interest is the Tollu copper deposit, where a significant swarm of hydrothermal copper-rich veins has been found in a mineralised system covering at least 5km-square. Exploration efforts in recent years have confirmed an extension of this mineralisation to the east of the main zone, which remains open at depth and hints at the potential for a major copper orebody, not just at Tollu but elsewhere within the West Musgrave Project.
A drilling campaign in 2015 resulted in a maiden resource estimate for the Tollu deposit measuring 3.8 million tonnes at 1% copper and 0.01% cobalt — equal to 38,000 tonnes of copper and 535 tonnes of cobalt — which Redstone expects to increase with further exploration and the influence of recent drilling campaigns. The nearby Nebo-Babel deposit, for example, is estimated to host 1.3 million tonnes of copper and 1.2 million tonnes of nickel.
More recently, assays announced in May 2023 confirmed extensions to a thick, high-grade copper lens that had been previously identified at Tollu’s Chatsworth prospect, with results including 11m at 1.2% copper from just 29m downhole.
“Drilling also confirms a consistent high‐grade of over 1%, with much of the latest drilling from Chatsworth yet to be incorporated into the existing JORC resource at the Tollu deposit“
“We are strongly encouraged by these latest assays which clearly show that the high‐grade copper mineralisation intersected at Chatsworth in historical drilling holds considerably more volume than originally thought,” Redstone Chairman Richard Homsany said at the time.
“Drilling also confirms a consistent high‐grade of over 1%, with much of the latest drilling from Chatsworth yet to be incorporated into the existing JORC resource at the Tollu deposit.”
But the West Musgrave Project isn’t Redstone’s only asset in WA. In July 2020, the company signed a farm-in agreement to acquire an 80% stake in the HanTails Gold Project, located 15km south of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
A large-scale tailings storage facility situated on the old Hannans South Gold Mill site, the HanTails Project is host to significant tailings stockpiles that were generated from the mill’s original operations between 1986 and 2006.
Two reverse circulation drill holes, totalling just 426m, were completed in 2023 to test for a gold-bearing structure beneath the tailings dam. One hole targeted the contact between a magnetic rock unit and a potential cross structure, while the other sought to define potential extensions of the Cray Zone, which is itself a southern extension to the structure that hosts the historical Hannan South gold deposit. However, none of the 156 drill chip samples sent for analysis suggested there was a significant gold-bearing structure at depth.
Nevertheless, Redstone was granted a 4-year extension to its prospecting licence, which expires on 2 April, 2027.
…to Canada
The big news of 2023, however, was Redstone’s foray into the ever-appealing Canadian lithium sector.
It began on 4 May, when the company signed an option agreement to acquire 100% of the Attwood Lake Project in north-western Ontario. Originally consisting of 13 unpatented mining claims, the project was divided into two properties — Witchwood and Greenside — before another 4 claims were staked a week later to join them together.
Now a single land package spanning 7,393 hectares, the Attwood Lake Project sits just 75km north of Green Technology Metals’ (ASX:GT1) flagship Seymour Project, which boasts a resource estimate measuring 9.9 million tonnes at 1.04% lithium oxide.
“Acquiring the Attwood Lake lithium properties is a significant value accretive acquisition for Redstone,” Homsany said in May.
“Acquiring the Attwood Lake lithium properties is a significant value accretive acquisition for Redstone“
“It advances our objective of exploring projects that are highly prospective for the critical minerals needed globally for de‐carbonisation and therefore in high demand. The geological setting of the Attwood properties and its potential to host lithium discoveries makes this a very attractive project.”
Redstone’s lithium effort continued to gain traction in July, when another option agreement was signed to acquire 100% of the Radisson East and Sakami projects in the James Bay region of Quebec.
Spanning 21.9km-square, Radisson East consists of 43 mineral claims and was identified for its pegmatite-hosted lithium mineralisation and indicator mineralogy, as well as its close proximity to major road networks. Sakami, meanwhile, comprises 134 mining claims across 67.8km-square where prolific greenstone belts were found to be coincident with a belt of elevated lithium-in-lake anomalism.
Together, the Radisson East and Sakami projects cover more than 50km of greenstone belt strike length, which is known to host spodumene-bearing pegmatites throughout the prolific James Bay region. These greenstone belts are the key host structures at nearby high grade projects, including Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX:PMT) Corvette Project — thought to be the largest lithium pegmatite resource in the Americas, measuring 109.2 million tonnes at 1.42% lithium oxide — and Winsome Resources’ (ASX:WR1) Cancet Project.
Redstone’s most recent lithium push, however, came at the start of October, when the company entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) to acquire 100% of the Taiga, Camaro and Hellcat projects in James Bay, and also signed an option to acquire the PAK South and PAK Southeast projects in Ontario.
Also located in close proximity to Patriot Battery Metals’ Corvette Project, the Taiga, Camaro and Hellcat properties collectively cover 5,187 hectares of tenure approximately 235km east of Radisson. As manager of the joint venture with Galan, Redstone will be tasked with day-to-day operations on-site.
The PAK South and PAK Southeast projects, on the other hand, cover 1,415 hectares in Ontario’s ‘Electric Avenue’, and sit directly adjacent to Frontier Lithium’s (TSXV:FL) PAK Project, which hosts a probable mineral reserve of 4 million tonnes at 1.79% lithium oxide.
“These new Canadian assets are a welcome addition to our existing copper and lithium portfolio, and further strengthen our strategy of becoming a leading critical metals explorer and developer,” Homsany said in an October announcement.
“Our technical team is also very encouraged by the quality of the areas [of] the JV projects and nearby high calibre discoveries, with the James Bay lithium projects being adjacent to the Patriot Battery Metals high‐grade CV8 pegmatite discovery, and the PAK lithium projects situated in Ontario’s Electric Avenue.
“Redstone has very quickly secured a highly valuable position in two of the world’s premier lithium exploration hotspots and we are now focused on accelerating our exploration strategy and unlocking value for shareholders.”
Full steam ahead
With an enviable portfolio of assets now in its pocket, Redstone seems locked in on exploration.
In April, the company released assays from a reverse circulation drilling program at the end of 2022, which focused on the Tollu deposit’s Forio prospect. The results included the highest-grade copper intercept ever collected from Tollu — 8m at 4.1% copper from 13m downhole, including 1m at 18.5% copper — and extended the mineralisation at Forio to a strike length of 60m.
A few days later, further assays confirmed the presence of mafic-ultramafic intrusions just 7.5km to the northeast of the Tollu deposit, which are potential host rocks for nickel, copper, platinum group element (PGE) and cobalt mineralisation.
“Redstone’s West Musgrave Project is also underexplored, with very limited exploration within the approximately 210 square km project area beyond the high-grade Tollu Cu deposit,” the company said in an announcement on 26 April.
“It is therefore significant that Redstone [has] successfully proven the presence of the mafic‐ultramafic target rocks on [its] project early in [its] exploration efforts beyond Tollu. Not only is this confirmation of the prospectivity for Ni‐Cu‐PGE ± Co mineralisation on the project but also a potential explanation for a source of the high grade Cu at Tollu.”
In mid-June, Redstone launched a reconnaissance mapping and sampling program at its Attwood Lake Project in Ontario, which was completed in early July with 209 rock samples sent for analysis. The results of that analysis, released in November, confirmed the discovery of several pegmatite outcrops, with some samples returning lithium assays up to three times background levels, particularly in the western portion of the project.
Likewise, prospectivity analysis completed in November by Mercator Geological Service in Quebec generated 18 lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite targets at Redstone’s Sakami Project, and another 6 LCT targets at Radisson East. Follow-up has already been planned, and is expected to include field mapping, outcrop sampling, and geochemical sampling over most of the prospective areas.
Though no exploration work was carried out by Redstone at the Taiga, Camaro, Hellcat projects in 2023, the previous owners contracted Axiom Exploration Group in October 2022 to assess the prospectivity of the properties. Overall, 61 samples were collected — 11 from Taiga, 12 from Camaro, and 47 from Hellcat. While most of the assay data showed geochemical trends indicative of pegmatite mineralisation, the samples from the Hellcat Project were found to host the greatest concentration of prospective dykes.
Redstone is yet to get boots on the ground at the PAK South and PAK Southeast projects.
When it comes to Redstone Resources, two things are clear. The first is that the company wasn’t messing around when it laid out its battery metal desires. The second is that it now has the real work to do — getting in and working out what, exactly, might be afforded by the assets it worked so quickly to bring on board.
How that turns out is just part of the fun. But it’s not impossible to imagine a year of newsflow worth paying attention to.
Write to Oliver Gray at Mining.com.au
Images: Redstone Resources
