This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Vantage Metals. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
When a mining company changes its name, it usually reflects a new chapter, with the focus shifting to a new commodity or project. But in the case of Vantage Metals (ASX:VAN), previously Belararox, the change is more like a whole new book, according to CEO Will Dix.
The original name was based on the Belara Project in New South Wales, which the company is looking to sell, and it often came with a swathe of mispronunciations.
“We’re not involved with the project anymore, so it makes no sense to have the name associated with it,” Dix says.
“And we’ve got a whole new management team now. I’m new, and we’ve got Chris Blaser as the General Manager Exploration across the company.
“We’ve also got some new directors, a new finance team, a completely new team in Botswana, so it made sense to rebrand.
“It’s not so much a new chapter as a new book. We have a pretty clear plan for what the next 12 to 18 months looks like, and having that new name is a nice fresh start.”
Botswana is the new focus for Vantage, specifically the Kalahari Copper Project, which sits in the same neighbourhood as Sandfire Resources’ (ASX:SFR) Motheo hub and MMG’s (HKG:1208) Khoemacau hub. The latter currently produces approximately 65,000 tonnes of copper metal annually and has plans to expand to 130,000 tonnes.
Vantage is focusing on targets immediately along strike from several copper deposits within Khoemacau, including the ‘high-grade’ Zone Five mineralisation, which hosts 167 million tonnes (Mt) at 2.1% copper and 26 grams per tonne silver.
Dix says that when he visited Botswana, he assumed the company would look to package the project up and sell it — but boots on the ground gave him a different insight.
“Sandfire has its Motheo hub that’s going really well, and then MMG just to the north of them has committed a billion dollars to expand its production from about 65,000 tonnes per annum to 130,000 tonnes per annum. That’s a huge tick for the belt as a whole, for Botswana as an investment destination, and for the inherent prospectivity of our projects,” he says.
“So, we looked at our ground where we’ve got this 50km-wide by 30km-long tenement immediately along strike of Motheo and Khoemacau that has had no work done on it, and the question was, why did we drill off the main mineralised trend and over in another zone last year?
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing and there are some reasons for it — the sand cover is a little bit deeper to the north, and the geophysics is a bit more complicated in our view, but it’s more prospective along strike from Khoemacau.”
Drilling along strike of majors
As part of its reset, Vantage built a new team, including bringing in a country manager who has 25 years of experience in copper belts in Africa, utilising the technical experience of geophysicist Jeremy Brett, whose work is helping narrow down drilling targets.
“We wiped the slate clean. We flew some airborne electromagnetics in March and could see where we thought the trends of these mineralised horizons might go. Then we stripped the geophysics back until we had a really high level of confidence that once we get the right contact, we can trace that through our tenements,” Dix says.
“That was a really key moment for us because we know what we want to drill, the lower part of the D’Kar Formation and the contact with the Ngwako Pan. This is the critical contact, and understanding it is the key to copper mineralisation and our exploration in the belt.”
Drilling has already begun and Dix says once Vantage hits the contact, the plan is to step out distances of around 400–800m to chase down the mineralisation.
“Doing that really detailed work with the geophysics gives us confidence that once we’ve pinned that contact down, we can trace it north and south,” he says.
“We’re drilling now and once we know where we are in the stratigraphy we can move the rig to the east or to the west to make sure that we pin that contact — and that’s the first critical step for us.”
Botswana ranked Africa’s top mining jurisdiction
Then there’s the added bonus of being located in Botswana. While operating in some African nations can be a tad tumultuous, Botswana is ranked the number one jurisdiction in Africa for mining investment because it’s politically stable and has the longest uninterrupted democracy in Africa.
“I’ve worked in lots of different parts of Africa and Botswana’s different,” Dix says.
“It’s the only African country that was never fully colonised; it was a British protectorate, and they’ve had democratic elections for a long, long time that are free and open.
“We’re pretty happy being in Botswana and that stability is one reason. There’s also a very clear tax regime, a very clear royalty structure, a transparent permitting process, excellent infrastructure, and something like 70% of the country is connected to the electricity main grid, which is very high for Africa.
“But the thing that really got us to the point where we doubled down on our commitment to Botswana is that when you look at Motheo and what Sandfire did there, they basically took that project from discovery to production in less than five years.
“That’s a really aggressive and really quick timeline, and I would challenge any Australian jurisdiction to be able to do that.”
Should Vantage successfully find a deposit, the process from development to production could happen at a speed shareholders would certainly enjoy.
Argentinian copper project still in play
While the main focus is currently on Africa, Vantage is still working on its Toro-Malambo-Tambo (TMT) Copper-Silver-Gold Project in Argentina. The project also boasts some serious neighbours, including BHP Group (ASX:BHP), Barrick Mining (TSX:ABX), and ATEX Resources (TSE:ATX). ATEX’s Valeriano Project hosts 7.55 million tonnes of contained copper and 9.71 million ounces of gold immediately to the west.
Two aggressive field seasons in 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 have already led to some success at TMT, including an ‘outstanding’ silver intersection at the Toro Central target, delivering 47m @ 172g/t silver, which equated to around 3.5% copper equivalent.
And while the geology is complicated, Dix says there’s some serious mineralisation in that zone.
“We’re going through a process at the moment where the guys in Argentina are re-logging with the benefit of hindsight. So, we’ve got all the geochemistry, and we can actually see how it all fits together,” he says.
“Toro Central is still very much a work in progress for us.
“We’ve also extended the geophysics a bit to the north at a prospect called Tambo South, where the company drilled two holes in field season 2024–2025. Both holes intersected around 400m at 0.1% copper — not economic, but indicative of there being copper in the system — and the extension to the geophysics has lit up a zone that looks really prospective.”
Vantage has plenty of in-country financial support, recently completing a $4 million placement that included strategic investors Integra Capital, based in Argentina; and Magnus Capital. Each investor will take up to a 10.12% stake in Vantage Metals at the placement price of $0.06.
An additional $2 million placement brings the total funds raised to $6 million, which will bolster exploration at both the Kalahari and TMT projects.
“We will be effective and efficient with our use of shareholder funds, and we’re committed to copper,” Dix says.
“We’re in two tier-one jurisdictions, and if we find something in either Botswana or Argentina, we could be looking at a company-making discovery in either of those belts.”
Write to Emma Davies at Mining.com.au
Images: Vantage Metals
