Critical minerals explorer Litchfield Minerals seeking up to $5.5m for IPO
\nNorthern Territory-focused Litchfield is the brainchild of father-and-son prospectors Michael and Matthew Pustahya
\nApprovals already in place for 30 drill holes across three key targets at Mount Doreen project
\nUranium, copper and tungsten are the company\u2019s main game, but a high-grade bismuth opportunity is also emerging<\/p>\n
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Some 15 years after father-and-son prospectors Michael and Matthew Pustahya first started piecing together various rock packages across parts of Northern Australia, one of their companies is set to debut on the ASX as early as next month.<\/strong><\/p>\n Litchfield Minerals (proposed ASX:LMS)<\/a> is targeting a mid-March listing following an IPO between $4.5 million and $5.5 million at 20c per share. The critical minerals explorer is focused on two key projects in the Northern Territory which the Pustahyas have spent the best part of the last five years advancing out of their own pockets.<\/p>\n Matthew Pustahya, who is also Litchfield\u2019s managing director, told Stockhead<\/em> the two projects \u2013 Mount Doreen and Lucy Creek \u2013 now required a more detailed level of exploration than what he and his father have undertaken to date.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been picking up tenements for years and trying to do as much work as we can to get them to a level where we\u2019re comfortable to either exit or develop them further,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really love this package that we have, that\u2019s why we decided to IPO it because we see the upside. This is one of the best packages we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n Joining Pustahya on Litchfield\u2019s four-person board is former Rio Tinto executive Peter Eaglen as chair, as well as non-executive directors Mark Noppe and Brent van Staden.<\/p>\n Phil Cawood of boutique advisory firm Alpine Capital is managing the company\u2019s IPO.<\/p>\n Litchfield Minerals is a critical minerals explorer focused on the Northern Territory. Pic: Supplied (LMS)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Litchfield IPO is the first time the Pustahyas have successfully progressed one of their private companies to the cusp of an ASX listing.<\/p>\n It is also a milestone arguably some three decades in the making.<\/p>\n \u201cFor my first show and tell, I took these gold specimens that I\u2019d picked up from the Melbourne Goldfields with Dad when I was three or four, so we\u2019ve always had a passion for rocks in us,\u201d the now 37-year-old Matthew Pustahya recalls.<\/p>\n \u201cDad has always been really into his science, he can tell you everything there is to know about black holes in space. He\u2019s not a geologist and neither am I, but we\u2019re very well researched. Dad has always had an inkling for rocks and geology and he can piece things together really easily. He\u2019s got a knowledge base of what I would call \u2018natural geology\u2019, he just understands how things work.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time Matthew was in his early 20s, he and his father were prospecting together \u201cmore professionally\u201d, picking up and exploring tenements around the vanadium-rich Julia Creek and Mt Isa quartz district in Queensland.<\/p>\n The Pustahyas held various parts of East and West Isa over the next decade before sensing an opportunity was emerging over the border in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw an opportunity around five years ago that the Northern Territory was ripe \u2013 ripe as in there was every likelihood that good infrastructure was going to start opening up places where no one had really been able to go and have a proper look because it\u2019s just so remote up there,\u201d Pustahya says.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we went hunting and we found Mount Doreen. Traditionally it was always pretty hard to get to in terms of you\u2019d have to drive up to the Tanami Road, which at that stage would take five or six hours from Alice Springs, and it was just rough country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re lucky enough now to have a two-lane sealed road right up past our tenement, plus a mining camp, an airstrip and everything else an exploration geologist needs to be able to do their job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Post listing, Litchfield is approved to drill 30 holes across three targets at Mount Doreen. Pic: Supplied (LMS)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Having been locked out for 2.5 years due to COVID-related travel restrictions, the Pustahyas were not about to waste any time continuing their hunt for a major mineral discovery at Mount Doreen, about 350km northwest of Alice Springs.<\/p>\n An induced polarisation survey over the 388km2 tenement package identified targets declared \u201chighly prospective\u201d for a range of minerals, including uranium, copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold, tungsten and rare earths.<\/p>\n Litchfield is particularly interested in the Silver King, Clark Mine and Mount Irene prospects which are approved for drilling post a successful ASX listing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re champing at the bit to get out there and drill,\u201d Pustahya says.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a compliance perspective, we\u2019ve got our mining management plans all approved, so we\u2019re ready to go and drill 10 holes across each of Silver King, Mount Irene and Clarke once the IPO is away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Mount Irene is one of the promising prospects Litchfield is eager to drill at its Mount Doreen project. Pic: Supplied (LMS)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Expect Litchfield to quickly work to prove up the uranium potential at Mount Doreen once listed as the energy metal continues to captivate investors thanks to the spot price recently breaking through US$100\/lb for the first time in 15 years.<\/p>\n The company is already surrounded by a number of existing uranium explorers in the Aileron province, including Energy Metals (ASX:EME)<\/a>, Sabre Resources (ASX:SBR)<\/a> and Eclipse Metals (ASX:EPM)<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve never been afraid of the uranium story, it was actually part of the reason why we picked these tenements up,\u201d Pustahya says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always knew the uranium potential was there. Interestingly enough, the granites behind Silver King seem to be quite rich in uranium, at least from a radiometric perspective. One of the rock chip samples from Rio Tinto returned 0.255% uranium, so we really need to investigate those.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got two other areas, Area 2 and Area 4, that are most likely a different style of mineralisation, it probably won\u2019t be within the granites, it might be in the sandstones or the sediments. But we do think that Area 3\u2019s granites, which are about 8km of strike, appear to be very elevated in uranium, according to radiometric data and some rock chip sampling, and that\u2019s probably been remobilised into the other areas on our tenement over millions of years.\u201d<\/p>\n While uranium, copper and tungsten are expected to be the main game for Litchfield at Mount Doreen, Pustahya also has high hopes for the delineation of another critical mineral \u2013 bismuth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe interesting part about our bismuth is it appears to be very high grade,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cBismuth is as rare as silver and gold on the parts per million crust. Some of our assays are up 2.8% bismuth \u2013 and that appears to be native bismuth. That would be equivalent to 8,000g\/t gold. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of unheard of so we\u2019re very excited about looking further into that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n At Mount Doreen, Litchfield is surrounded by fellow ASX-listed uranium explorers. Pic: Supplied (LMS)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Located about 400km northeast of Alice Springs is the company\u2019s second project, Lucy Creek, which hosts potential for manganese, sedimentary base metals and rare earths over a large 790km2 ground holding.<\/p>\n Even though it is still early days, Litchfield is ultimately seeking to join majors such as Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO)<\/a> and Newmont (ASX:NEM)<\/a> as an established name in the burgeoning Northern Territory resources sector, which has become one of Australia\u2019s hottest exploration spots.<\/p>\n Mid-tier miners including IGO (ASX:IGO)<\/a> and Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR)<\/a> have also staked sizeable footprints in the Northern Territory in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nowhere to peg anymore in the NT and that\u2019s really only happened over the last year and a half,\u201d Pustahya says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Northern Territory had their biggest quarter on record for exploration in the [September 20230 quarter, nearly $75 million, so I think it\u2019s fair to say we\u2019re not the only ones that are bullish on the NT. And the government up there are really supportive of exploration.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see it as the final frontier. It\u2019s one of the only places in Australia that just hasn\u2019t had a fine-tooth comb run through it, and where tenements aren\u2019t being as recycled as much. We think some major discoveries will be made in the NT, especially where we\u2019re sitting, in that Arunta complex.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Lucy Creek is located 400km northwest of Alice Springs and has shown promising potential for manganese. Pic: Supplied (LMS)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Just two resources IPOs have hit the ASX this year, but pleasingly for Litchfield\u2019s prospects, both Kali Metals (ASX:KM1)<\/a> and Infini Resources (ASX:I88)<\/a> are respectively trading 56% and 40% above their listing prices, as of market close on February 6.<\/p>\n According to Pustahya, Litchfield could be drilling at Mount Doreen within two weeks of its stock debuting on the bourse.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to be drilling day one, but I don\u2019t think logistically we\u2019ll be able to do that, but I think two weeks after is quite a reasonable timeframe,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a challenging market, obviously, at the moment but there\u2019s still a lot of money sitting on the sidelines and we\u2019ve got a really good team of people behind us to make it all work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Litchfield Minerals is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post Family Matters: Meet the father-and-son prospectors behind Litchfield Minerals<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Humble beginnings<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Copper, uranium, tungsten\u2026 and a hint of bismuth<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Marking its territory<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Stepping up to the big time<\/strong><\/h2>\n