Investing News NetworkAUSTRALIA
Belararox Limited (ASX:BRX) (“Belararox” or “the Company”), an advanced mineral explorer focused on high-value clean energy metals, is pleased to announce that Managing Director Arvind Misra has travelled to Argentina, visiting Buenos Aries, Mendoza, San Juan, and the Toro target at the TMT Project. Exploration Director Jason Ward has moved permanently to Argentina to oversee the TMT Project.
Key Highlights
- BRX operations in Argentina fully established following a visit to Argentina by Managing Director Arvind Misra and Exploration Director Jason Ward and meetings with key Government officials, contractors, and the Condor Exploration Team involved with the Toro-Malambo-Tambo (“TMT”) Project.
- Exploration Director Jason Ward has moved to Argentina to oversee the TMT Project
- GWK SA board reorganised with Jason Ward nominated as President (CEO equivalent), Arvind Misra as Chairman and Juan Cruz Cardoso as director. GWK SA is 100% owned Argentinian subsidiary of Belararox.
- Earthworks Contractors have mobilised to the TMT Project with road rehabilitation well underway.
- BRX through its subsidiary GWK SA has established a new office in San Juan, Argentina and has appointed several key staff members on a full-time basis to oversee the execution and management of the TMT exploration program.
Managing Director Arvind Misra commented on the visit −
“BRX's operations are now firmly established after productive meetings with government officials, contractors, and the Condor Exploration Team. Jason Ward's presence in Argentina to oversee the TMT Project signifies our commitment. The GWK SA board restructure and earthworks progress are key highlights, and our new office in San Juan is poised for success. Our interactions with government officials underscore their unwavering support for our endeavors. Exciting times ahead for BRX in Argentina.”
TMT Project – Geological Context for Discovery
Figure 1: The location of the Toro-Malambo-Tambo (“TMT”) project relative to the El IndoMetallogenic Belt and the Maricunga Metallogenic Belt[1][1] = Source data (Filo Mining Corp., 2020), (E& MJ Engineering and Mining Journal, 2021), & (Barrick Gold Corporation, 2023)
The TMT project is located Argentina, near the Chile-Argentina border in an area where exploration activities have been closing the underexplored gap between the [i] El Indo Metallogenic Belt, which contains the Veladero and Pascua Lima deposits, and the [ii] Maricunga Metallogenic Belt, which contains the Filo del Sol and Josemaria deposits (refer to Figure 1).
A total of eleven (11) high- sulphidation epithermal and/or porphyry targets were highlighted in the recent desktop study that included satellite hyperspectral interpretations that delineated high- sulphidation epithermal and/or porphyry targets: for more information, please refer to the BRX ASX Release dated 23rd May 2023 and Figure 2.
Figure 2: Eleven prospective targets identified from satellite spectral imagery and geological interpretation of hydrothermal alteration zones [Modified from (Garwin, 2023): BRX ASX Release dated 23rd May 2023]
Key Stakeholder Meetings in Argentina
Key Stakeholder Meetings and events undertaken in Argentina: included
- 8th Sep BRX Managing Director Arvind Misra met with Dr Simon Twisk, Australian Ambassador for Argentina − Buenos Aries (refer to Figure 3 on page 4);
- 11th Sep BRX Managing Director Arvind Misra met with Dr Pamela Morales, Undersecretary for the Ministry of Productive Development Government of Argentina − Buenos Aries (refer to Figure 4 on page 4);
- 13th Sep BRX Managing Director Arvind Misra met with key members of the Condor Prospecting Team, in San Juan / Mendoza (refer to Figure 5 & Figure 6 on page 5, and Figure 7 on page 6);
- 14th Sep BRX Managing Director Arvind Misra and Exploration Director Jason Ward met with Marcelo Orrego, Governor-Elect of San Juan (refer to Figure 8 on page 6);
- 14th Sep BRX Managing Director Arvind Misra and Exploration Director Jason Ward met with Ricardo Martinez Chair of the Mining Chamber of San Juan (refer to Figure 9 on page 7);
- 15th Sep BRX Managing Director Arvind Misra met with the Director of Mining Mendoza Mining department;
- 18th Sep BRX Managing Director Arvind Misra met with Carlos Astudillo, Minister of Mining for San Juan (refer to Figure 10 on page 7); and
- 18th Sep − 20th Sep Managing Director Arvind Misra and Exploration Manager Arturo Guardiola went through the plans for the 2023-24 field season and visited site The Earthworks Contractor had been engaged and has mobilised to upgrade the access route to the TMT Project.
The meetings with Government officials including the Minister for Mining of San Juan Carlos Astudillo, Governor Elect of San Juan Marcelo Orrego, and Australian Ambassador to Argentina Argentineans to support the proposed exploration activities, together with Government Officials offering their unwavering commitment to providing full support.
Click here for the full ASX Release
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Belararox Limited
Overview
Belararox Limited (ASX:BRX) is an Australian mineral exploration and development company focusing on its 100-percent-owned base and precious metals projects, targeting zinc, copper, gold, silver, nickel and lead resources, and aiming to be. The company aims to be a significant contributor to help meet the world’s growing demand for battery and renewable energy metals.
The Australian government is investing nearly AU$70 billion to boost renewable energy initiatives to meet its 2030 net-zero goals, which not only provides Belararox opportunity to access government funding but also allows it to benefit from a supportive policy regime.
Belara, the company’s flagship project in New South Wales, has an inferred resource estimate of 5 million tonnes of base and precious metals. Belararox also recently acquired a new asset in Argentina, which the company will soon begin exploration work on.
Belararox has completed Phase 1 drilling, confirmed historical mineralizations, and upgraded the JORC-compliant inferred resource estimate at its flagship Belara asset. The updated resource estimate resulted in a 100-percent increase in mineralized tonnes, a 65-percent increase in copper, and a newly defined 33,762 ounces of gold. The company is now moving towards Phase 2 drilling.
Bullabulling, the company’s secondary asset in Western Australia, is slated for lithium permatite exploration work to be completed by middle of 2023, with results being available by the end of the year.
In March 2023, Belararox entered a binding agreement to acquire 100 percent of the Toro-Malambo-Tambo (TMT) Base Metals and Cu-Au Porphyry project in Argentina (TMT Project) from Fomo Ventures. As part of the transaction, Belararox will enter into royalty deeds with Fomo shareholders with respect to a one-percent net smelter royalty. The TMT project is believed to be highly prospective for zinc, an in-demand clean energy metal used in processes to reduce carbon emissions.
Company Highlights
- Belararox Limited is a mineral exploration and development company focussing on its 100-percent-owned precious and base metal assets.
- The company’s focus on battery metals creates an opportunity to gain access to funding from the Australian government, which is investing in mining projects to reach its 2030 net-zero goals.
- Belara, the company’s flagship asset, has an inferred resource of 5 million tonnes of base and precious metals, including zinc, lead, copper, silver and gold.
- Belararox Limited will soon begin the next phase of drilling at Belara.
- The company’s secondary Bullabulling project in Western Australia has a planned drilling campaign for 2023.
- Belararox’s recently acquired Toro-Malambo-Tambo (TMT) project in Argentina includes untested assets. The company inspected and reviewed key mineralised sections of historical drill core stored in trays as part of its due diligence process in acquiring the project and has verified the presence of zinc mineralisation.
- An experienced board and management team leads the company towards exploring and developing its asset portfolio with expertise throughout the mining industry.
Key Projects
Belara Project
The company’s 100-percent-owned Belara project in New South Wales covers 643 square kilometers, including two historic zinc-copper-gold mines: Belara and Native Bee. Both mines contain encouraging historical results and have been expanded upon by Belararox’s initial drill campaign. The company is now moving towards Phase 2 drilling and additional exploration.
Figure: Belara and Native Bee project and Belara structural corridor extending 20 kilometers to the south as evident on the regional geology map.
Project Highlights:
- Prolific Maiden Resource Estimate: The company recently completed its Phase 1 drilling project to confirm and expand historical results. The JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate includes 5 million tonnes of ore at:
- 3.41 percent zinc equivalent (ZnEq) at 1.82 percent zinc
- 0.33 percent copper
- 0.63percent lead
- 17.5 g/t silver
- 0.21g/t gold
- 0.85 percent ZnEq cut-off.
- Phase 2 Drilling Scheduled: Belararox has identified new drill-ready targets along an unexplored strike extension between Belara and Native Bee. Phase 2 of drilling is planned for 2023 after the wet season in the region and aims to extend the asset's potential.
- Additional Exploration Planned: Both mines on the asset contain additional opportunities to expand known resources. As a result, Belararox plans to conduct additional airborne magnetic, GAIP and gravity exploration activities to identify future targets for exploratory drilling.
Bullabulling Project
Belararox’s secondary 100-percent-owned project consists of 26 exploration licenses over 48.8 square kilometers in Western Australia. The Bullabulling project is accessible via two all-weather gravel tracks developed during historical mining operations.
Figure: Prospective pegmatite target corridor – proximal to Bali Monzogranite and amphibolites
Project Highlights:
- Past-producing Asset: The past-producing asset contains mineralization that historically produced more than 3 million ounces of gold. Bullabulling was explored between the 1990s and 2010s, yet most of the asset remains underexplored.
- Belararox has located potential lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) mineralization on its Bullabulling tenements.
- Recent reconnaissance mapping on the Bullabulling Project has assessed gold targets and the potential for LCT pegmatites. The mapping has identified extensive quartz and pegmatite veins/sheets in the amphibolite units adjacent to the Bali Monzogranite.
- The current global focus on battery metals, has targeted attention on the greenstone belts of the Yilgarn Craton as fertile corridors for LCT pegmatites.
- The margins of the Bali Monzogranite at Bullabulling are prospective for LCT pegmatites with several significant LCT pegmatites located in close proximity to the Bullabulling tenements, including the Red Panda and Ubini deposits both located some 2 kilometers along strike from BRX tenements.
- Several pegmatites have been mapped by the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) within, and in proximity, to the Bullabulling Project.
Ongoing exploration activities planned for the Bullabulling tenements will now be widened to include assessment of both gold and LCT prospectivity.
Toro-Malambo-Tambo (TMT) Project
The TMT project in Argentina covers 32,000 hectares of highly prospective land. The asset is located in the San Juan province, one of Latin America's most attractive mining jurisdictions known for hosting multiple advanced copper-gold projects.
Figure: TMT project area in the San Juan Province of Argentina, in close proximity to world-class projects such as Filo del Sol, Josemaria, Pascua Lama and Veladero. Source: Modified from the Argentinian Geological and Mining Survey
Project Highlights:
- The TMT project is located in the Valle del Cura region within the San Juan province, in an underexplored gap between two world-class metallogenic belts, the El Indio and Maricunga belts in the Central Andes.
- The San Juan province in Argentina, one of the most attractive mining jurisdictions of Latin America, hosts several renowned high-profile advanced copper-gold porphyry projects including Filo del Sol (Lundin), Josemaria (Lundin), Altar (Aldebaran Resources), Los Azules (McEwen Mining) and El Pachon (Glencore), as well as the high-sulphidation gold-silver deposits Veladero and Pascua Llama (Barrick-Shandong).
- As part of the transaction, Condor Prospecting, an experienced exploration team based in Argentina, owned by the vendors and closely associated with prominent exploration geologist Jason Ward, will be responsible for execution of the exploration programmes of the TMT Project.
- This acquisition complements Belararox’s existing portfolio of Australian zinc-copper projects while providing a strong value proposition for shareholder value.
- As part of the company's due diligence for the acquisition, it inspected and reviewed key mineralised sections of historical drill core stored in trays verifying the presence of zinc mineralisation.
- The company has secured the approval for the project's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) over the Toro tenure which includes three (3) of the nine (9) recently submitted EIAs. Initial exploration, drilling, camp refurbishment, track construction and maintenance are now permitted to commence immediately.
Management Team
Neil Warburton - Non-executive Chairman
Neil Warburton is a graduate of the Western Australia School of Mines with an associate degree in mining engineering. He is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, chairman of the Australian Mining and Prospectors Hall of Fame Foundation, councilor of the Western Australian School of Mines Alumni association, and serves as a director on several smaller private companies.
Warburton has worked in the mining industry his entire career in roles ranging from underground miner through to senior mining engineer to executive and non-executive directorships managing large mining and contracting companies. He has more than 40 years of experience in all areas of mining operations.
Over the period 2000 to 2012, Warburton held senior positions with Barminco Limited culminating in his appointment as chief executive officer from August 2007 to March 2012. During his time at Barminco, he managed the day-to-day Australian operations and coordinated the international expansion into West Africa and Egypt, establishing the company as the largest underground hard rock contractor in Australia and West Africa and more than doubling Barminco’s revenue.
Arvind Misra - Managing Director
Arvind Misra holds a Bachelor of Technology in mining engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi, India and a Bachelor of Computer Science from Murdoch University. Misra is an experienced mining engineer with more than 30 years of industry experience, working through small and large mining companies in Australia, Africa and Asia.
Misra’s primary expertise is in start-up of the new mining businesses in any jurisdiction, recommencement of dormant mines, mine management, feasibility studies, acquisition of assets, turnaround management, corporate restructuring, exploration project management, IPOs and stock exchange listing.
Misra served on the board of ASX-listed company India Resources Limited as managing director for nine years as well as on several unlisted boards (private limited).
Misra has worked on numerous high-profile projects for RIO Tinto, BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, Mount Isa Mines (Glencore), Anglo American (Zambia), Griffin Coal, Norseman Gold, Brandrill Limited and India Resources Limited.
Misra is a director of Aranak Pty Ltd and non-executive advisor to several mining companies, and a member of the Australasia Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Michelle Stokes - Non-executive Director
Michelle Stokes holds a Bachelor of Science in geology from the University of Western Australia and has completed various professional development workshops and courses. Stokes has over 35 years’ experience across mining, exploration, consulting, and the public sector. She was responsible for the development of successful mining projects in Western Australia that are still in operation today. Stokes was a key player in the team that developed the Northern Gold portfolio in the Northern Territory. She has a high level of expertise in management and operations after providing consulting services to industry and government over many decades.
She continues to consult and advise industry and governments in various aspects of the minerals industry, focussing on management and interpretation of exploration data, resource estimation and the transfer of data and knowledge to the public or internally within exploration teams. She has a very well- developed understanding of the needs and requirements of mineral explorers.
Simon Robertson - Non-executive Director
Simon Robertson is a highly regarded non-executive director and company secretary with over 15 years’ experience providing compliance, corporate governance, capital raising, strategic direction and planning and risk management advice for a number of ASX listed, public unlisted and private companies.
Prior to joining Belararox, Robertson was non-executive director of ScandiVanadium Limited (now Province Resources Limited). He has a Master of Applied Finance from Macquarie University and is a member of the Governance Institute of Australia and Chartered Accountants Australian & New Zealand.
John Traicos - Non-executive Director and Company Secretary
John Traicos is a lawyer with more than 30 years’ experience in commercial and corporate affairs in Australia and Southern Africa. Traicos has acted as company secretary and commercial manager to several Australian resource companies and has been involved in resource projects and acquisitions in Australia, Africa and Indonesia.
Traicos is currently a director of Bassari Resources Limited, Pacific Bauxite NL and Abyssinian Gold PLC and company secretary/commercial/legal manager of Abyssinian Metals Limited. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from the University of Natal and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Rhodesia.
Dr. Greg Partington - Chief Technical Consultant
Dr. Gregor Partington is the managing director of Kenex, which is focused on creating and managing opportunities through the application of spatial and predictive modeling. He has been involved in mining and exploration in Australasia for 40 years and has experience in discovery, management and development of projects for gold, copper, silver, tin, tungsten, tantalum, lithium and PGE metals. He has successfully developed and managed several listed exploration companies, and has a proven track record of increasing shareholder value. Partington and the Kenex team have led the development of the first, and subsequent, predictive GIS-based mineral potential maps for several areas in Australia including the areas around the BelearaRox tenements in NSW and WA.