Pilbara completes Lynas Find buy

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Juniors Pilbara Minerals and Dakota Minerals have completed the Lynas Find lithium transaction, allowing Pilbara to increase its lithium footprint in Western Australia.

The two companies in October agreed to the sale of the Lynas Find project, under which Pilbara acquired the Lynas Find granted tenements for A$4-million. An additional A$1-million payment will be made on the granting of a term extension on one of the core tenements.

Pilbara also agreed to pay a further A$750 000 for each of an additional four Pilgangoora exploration tenements, which are currently under application by Dakota Minerals. These payments will be triggered by the successful grant and transfer of the tenements to Pilbara in the following 12 months.

“The completion of the Lynas Find acquisition is another significant milestone, further increasing our global resource inventory and significantly expanding our footprint in the Pilangoora district,” said Pilbara Minerals MD and CEO Ken Brinsden.

The Lynas Find tenements are directly adjacent to Pilbara Minerals' flagship Pilgangoora project, which currently hosts a mineral resource of 128.6-million tonnes, grading 1.22% lithium oxide, 138 parts per million tantalum oxide and 0.63% iron oxide.

“This strategic acquisition gives us additional flexibility in terms of accessing high-grade tonnes in the early stages of the project, and in locating key infrastructure items for the overall project development,” Brinsden said.

Dakota Minerals CEO David Frances said on Thursday that the transaction was a win for the company’s shareholders, and placed Dakota in a strong financial position, enabling the company to aggressively advance its strategy of becoming a sustainable lithium carbonate/hydroxide supplier to the European battery industry.