Ardea Resources (ASX:ARL), a spin-off from Heron Resources (ASX:HRR), is preparing to list on the ASX in February 2017 by raising up to $6 million from an initial public offer priced at $0.20 per share.
The company is focused on the cobalt potential within its Kalgoorlie Nickel Project in Western Australia and the open-pit mining potential of its Lewis Ponds zinc-gold deposit in New South Wales.
The Kalgoorlie Nickel Project is the largest cobalt resource documented for an ASX-listed
Australian mineral explorer.
Ardea plans to drive shareholder value through drilling programs at both projects scheduled in March 2017.
Kalgoorlie Nickel Project
The 100% owned Kalgoorlie Nickel Project is located 65 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The project has one of the world’ largest cobalt resources of 805 million tonnes at 0.05% cobalt and 0.7% nickel, containing 380,000 tonnes cobalt and 5.6 million tonnes nickel.
This includes a high-grade cobalt zone of 49.7 million tonnes at 0.12% cobalt and 0.86% nickel containing 59,640 tonnes of cobalt.
Lewis Ponds zinc-gold deposit
The 100% owned Lewis Ponds zinc-gold deposit is located 15 kilometres east of Orange in central New South Wales.
The deposit contains 6.6 million tonnes at 1.5 g/t gold, 69 g/t silver, 2.4% zinc and is focused on a high-grade underground operation.
Analysis
By raising $6 million, Ardea will be funded to begin exploration drilling at the ASX’s largest cobalt resource.
Cobalt is a necessary metal for the production of the latest generation of high density lithium-ion batteries.
Due to its high run-time properties, the use of cobalt in portable lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles is rising.
Through the immediate drilling of key targets, significant near-term news flow is expected post-listing.