If there’s one ingredient that Accelerate Resources Ltd (ASX:AX8) believes will be key to the modern energy revolution, it’s manganese.
This brittle, silvery transition metal made its name in the steelmaking industry as an alloying agent but has since found favour as a key ingredient in contemporary battery chemistries.
It’s hard not to like manganese as a green energy prospect: it’s the 12th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, comes at a relatively low cost and plays a part in myriad tech applications.
So, where does Accelerate come in? It believes it will be Australia’s next manganese producer, bringing this versatile mineral to market to service the burgeoning steel and battery industries.
With lithium and gold upside to boot, this West Aussie explorer is dedicated to farming up critical minerals on home soil, creating a reliable and sustainable supply chain that will satiate manganese demand in the decades to come.
In this article:
- Meet the team
- Best of both worlds
- A new chapter for Woodie Woodie North
- Where to next?
Accelerate is helmed by managing director Yaxi Zhan, a mining entrepreneur who cut her teeth in Australia and China’s resources industries.
Yaxi carries more than 14 years of leadership experience, while her expertise in corporate finance and project development is central to the company’s strategic direction.
Working alongside Yaxi and chairing the board is Richard Hill, who served as a founding director at Aurelia Metals Ltd (ASX:AMI) and has worked in boardrooms across Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD)Ltd, Sky Metals Ltd and New World Resources Ltd (ASX:NWC).
As a geologist and solicitor, he brings mineral and legal know-how to the table alongside non-executive directors Grant Mooney and Steve Bodon.
Business acumen aside, the Accelerate team has the resources expertise and track record to deliver on its core mission: to become a future steel and battery industry supplier.
Best of both worlds
While all eyes are on manganese’s prospects as a battery metal, it’s important to remember the pivotal role it continues to play in the steelmaking industry.
According to Geoscience Australia, a whopping 90% of all manganese consumed annually goes into steel as an alloying agent.
Even more important? Nothing works quite like manganese does for the same competitive price, making it the belle of the ball in the steelmaking arena.
And while only a small portion of all manganese produced is currently destined for battery applications, manganese consumption in lithium-ion batteries is forecast to increase 18 times over between 2021 and 2050, meaning the door is open for companies that can cater to both worlds.
Source: Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (August 2020).
A new chapter for Woodie Woodie North
With the manganese market poised for future growth, much of Accelerate’s current focus centres on its cornerstone asset: the Woodie Woodie North manganese play in northern WA.
This exploration asset encapsulates 358 square kilometres of prospective geology, located 30 kilometres from road, 60 kilometres from rail and 240 kilometres from the world’s largest bulk export port.
Central to the project’s critical minerals upside is a 33-kilometre manganese corridor, just 70 kilometres from the Woodie Woodie manganese mine.
Despite seeing more than 27,000 metres of historical reverse circulation (RC) drilling, this structurally controlled corridor remains underexplored and under-drilled, making it a prime candidate for modern exploration.
Last year, Accelerate began to remedy that with a 4,400-metre drilling campaign, fielding numerous hits up to 17 metres thick and identifying broad, moderate to high-grade manganese zones.
Fast forward to 2023, and the company is back on ground with another RC program.
A track-based RC rig on site and ready for action at Woodie Woodie North.
MD Yaxi Zhan was excited to get the program underway, particularly as this year’s drilling mileage will nearly double that completed in last year’s campaign.
“Our exploration strategy is based on the success of last year’s operations, and we will combine results from this program with all previous work, aiming to deliver maiden JORC-compliant resource estimates by the fourth quarter of this year,” she explained.
“The $150,000 co-funding from the WA Government EIS program is a strong endorsement of our work and will boost our budget for the diamond drilling program in this field season."
As work gets underway, Accelerate is paying close attention to five highly prospective manganese corridors; the Barra North, Barra South, Gum Creek, Parsons Creek and Area 42 prospects.
Woodie Woodie North manganese corridors.
What’s interesting about these targets is that they share much of the same geology, structural trends and mineralisation as the nearby Woodie Woodie mine, boosting Accelerate’s confidence in its drill prospects.
Where to next?
There’s plenty in store for Accelerate Resources in 2023.
Heading into June, the explorer has all eyes on Woodie Woodie North’s prospective manganese corridors, where it’s conducting systematic sampling, high-impact drilling and metallurgical test-work.
Drilling will continue over the September quarter, while phase two manganese test-work will also get underway.
Then, capitalising on work that started back in March, Accelerate will make headway on manganese product testing, as well as exploration at its East Pilbara lithium play, with a steady pipeline of drill results to follow.
Ultimately, the next four months will see AX8 collate valuable data to declare a maiden manganese resource at Woodie Woodie North, with diamond drilling and metallurgical test-work also on the cards in late 2023.
This will position Accelerate to initiate offtake discussions with prospective developers, priming its foundational project to enter the next stage of development.
With all of this on the horizon, there’s ample news to come.
“This year is poised to be transformative for Accelerate as we continue to de-risk the Woodie Woodie North project,” Yaxi said in May.
“[We want to] deliver real value to our shareholders, and make strides in our high-value, high-purity manganese strategy.”