Highlights
▪European Lithium enters into Collaboration Agreement with Jadaron it’s Austrian tenements
▪European Lithium acquires a 20% interest in Jadar’s Weinebene and Eastern Alps Lithium Projects (Jadar 80% interest), located adjacent to our Wolfsberg Project in Austria
▪The proximity of the Weinebene and Eastern Alps Projects to European Lithium’s Wolfsberg Project (JORC compliant mineral resources of 11Mt @ 1% li2O1) creates optionality and potential synergistic development and production scenarios for both parties
▪Both parties have agreed to a pre-emptive right, if either party should choose to sell their interest in the projects
▪Drilling still continuing at Wolfsberg
European Lithium Limited (ASX:EUR, FRA:PF8, VSE:ELI) has entered into a Collaboration Agreement with Jadar Resources Limited (ASX: JDR). The Company has also acquired a 20% interest in Jadar’s Austrian Lithium assetsfrom their JV partner.
Jadar holds an 80% interest in Subsidiary Jadar Lithium GmbH (Jadar Lithium), the holder of the Weinebene and Eastern Alps Projects. Jadar has waived its first right of refusal over the remaining 20% interest in Jadar Lithium, allowing Exchange Minerals Limited (EML) to sell their 20% interest to EUR for a consideration of $125,000 cash and 6,666,666 fully paid ordinary shares in the capital of the Company with 1 attaching option exercisable at $0.075 each on or before 31 July 2022.
Completion of the transaction is subject to Jadar waiving all pre-emptive rights over EML’s interest in Jadar Lithium and consentingto the transfer, and confirmation of no breach of warranties by EML.
The Collaboration Agreement includes the establishment of a Technical Advisory Committeefor the purpose of jointly collaborating in connection with the Weinebene and Eastern Alps Projects and sharing information to identify the best options to advance those assets and operations. This includes making recommendations for exploration programs, budgets and development scenarios in relation to the assets and operations.
The Weinebene and Eastern Alps Lithium Projects lie only 20km to the east EUR’sWolfsberg Project (JORC compliant mineral resources of 11Mt @ 1% Li2O1) and as such provide both parties with optionality in terms of future development and production scenarios.
Jadar Resources’ Executive Director Adrian Paul commented: “This partnership and Collaboration Agreement formed with European Lithium will allow Jadar to progress our Austrian Lithium assets with the assistance of a key strategic partner with significant JORC compliant resources neighboring our exploration assets. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with European Lithium and develop detailed exploration programs which will see these Projects progress further.”
European Lithium’s Chairman Tony Sage commented: “This is a fantastic result and gives European Lithium access to a greater portfolio of highly prospective Austrian lithium projects which have the potential to increase the useful life of the proposed infrastructure for our Wolfsburg Lithium Project. The proximity of Jadar’s lithium Projects to Wolfsberg presents a number of potential synergistic benefits for both companies and we look forward to beginning work to further the exploration activities at the Projects.”
Weinebene Lithium Project
The Weinebene project is in some areas overlapping andalsoadjacent to EUR’s Wolfsberg deposit, where the Company postulates that the veins which comprise the JORC compliant resource at the Wolfsberg deposit, strike into the Jadar ́s Weinebene project area. In November the Company announced that a maiden stratigraphic diamond drill hole program had been completed at Weinebene Lithium Project. The drilling program allowed the Company to renew the Austrian tenement future 5 years term2.“… Initial boulder sampling results returned high-grade Li2O values with the highest value returning 3.39% Li2O and the average value over the 11 samples from the Weinebene project being 1.61% Li2O. As the samples were not collected from outcrops, but rather boulders, the Company can not be 100% certain that the boulders represent the strike extensions of the veins. The geological evolution of the area did not include any glaciation and associated transportation of large boulders. This encourages the interpretation that the sampled boulders are located near the pegmatite veins….”3.It shall be mentionedthat two out of the 11 grab sample locations showing the aforementioned 3.39% of Li2O are located on overlapping exploration licensesbetween ECM and Jadar, where ECM owns the rank 1 exploration rights. This shows the advantage for EUR to achieve a common exploration effort to potentially extend EUR’s resource base.
Eastern Alps Lithium Project
The Eastern Alps Lithium Project licences are located in Southern Austria approximately 3 hours south-west of Vienna. These Austrian prospects contain indications of high-grade lithium targets with significant residualbrownfields plus greenfields exploration potential across the entire 64.1 km2project area.The Company has also identified several prospect areas within its Eastern Alps projects that require follow up evaluation and drill testing.