Boadicea Resources Ltd (ASX:BOA) is confident its growth trajectory is exponential as it sits on a potential $50 million-plus payday from mining partner IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO), amid several other projects in the premier mining regions of northern Western Australia and northern Queensland.
Back in early September 2020, Boadicea executed a conditional asset sale agreement with IGO Newsearch, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IGO, which is one of Australia’s biggest mining companies with a market cap of $5.3 billion.
That agreement saw Boadicea farm-out nine of its tenements in Western Australia’s Fraser Range, prospective for nickel, to IGO Newsearch in return for a $5.5 million upfront payment, a $1.5 million investment through BOA shares and, potentially, $50 million.
The $50 million payment is conditional on IGO finding and declaring a JORC-compliant resource within five years.
It’s the news that is driving excitement and investment into Boadicea, but as managing director Jon Reynolds points out, it’s only the headline.
The company also has two promising gold-copper projects - the Koongulla Project in the Paterson Province of WA and the Clarke Reward Project in Queensland’s Drummond basin, with drilling expected at the former by the end of this year and at the latter by the June quarter of 2022.
Fraser Range
The Orion prospect.
Boadicea has 11 tenements in the Fraser Range region, nine of which have been farmed-out to IGO.
IGO, being a larger company with access to a multitude of resources, will have access to a further 15,000 square kilometres of the Fraser Range tenure, and it has already identified more than 600 mafic and ultramafic intrusions and 466 possible targets.
This is in addition to IGO’s existing Fraser Range assets, including the Nova nickel operations.
Highest on the list of priorities for IGO and Boadicea is the Orion prospect, which is adjacent to and expected to extend into Boadicea’s Symons Hill Project and is within 3 kilometres of the Nova mine.
IGO has commenced exploration, with planned drilling this quarter. It has been tested on IGO’s side, within 25 metres of Boadicea’s boundary.
Reynolds told investors that they could expect results from drilling at Orion very soon. “Orion has been drilled by IGO on their side of the fence, and it is their number one prospect,” he said.
“They’ve done 3D seismic studies, and they’ve identified it slams right into our tenement, and they will start drilling on our side in early to mid-May, and we expect results in quarter three of this year.”
But even within the Fraser Range tenements, Orion is just the headline of a fuller story.
“The agreement covers nine of our tenements and we are free-carried throughout all of that exploration, so it’s a great news story for us and our shareholders, and if they find a JORC resource, of any sort of quality, whether it’s small or large, they’re forced to buy our tenements off us.
“On top of that is what I call the steak knives, and that’s a 0.75% royalty, based on a revenue component, not a profit or cash margin, and with 10-year highs for nickel, that could be a significant component of the value of the transaction once it’s mined.
“They are also planning an electromagnetic survey and aircore drilling on a further four tenements, all of which are proximal to the Mawson discovery by Legend Mining Ltd (ASX:LEG) (ASX:LEG), one of the better other nickel deposits in the area.”
Most recently Boadicea announced IGO will be testing for extensions from known nickel mineralisation at Orion, around 325 metres from previous drilling inside their Nova-Bollinger tenement.
But wait, there’s more
In the Paterson Province of Western Australia’s north is Boadicea’s Koongulla Copper-Gold Project.
The Koongulla project is in WA’s Paterson Province.
The company owns one tenement and has applications being assessed for a further two in the region, covering a total area of 612 square kilometres.
In Paterson Province
This area is highly prospective for gold and copper, with Boadicea’s tenements being near to those held by names such as Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:ASX:RIO) and Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM).
Excitingly, in March, Boadicea discovered a dome-like feature that may represent a target for Telfer-style copper-gold mineralisation at Koongulla.
It is relatively shallower than expected with an initial estimation of 200 metres to 250 metres of cover.
Recognition of the dome feature provides a key exploration target for copper-gold mineralisation like several other key deposits within the Paterson province.
Diamond drilling is planned for the fourth quarter of 2021.
Queensland gold
Meanwhile, in Queensland’s Drummond basin, Boadicea’s exploration footprint was recently expanded with a new exploration permit application, covering a highly anomalous magnetic feature in a structural position at the margin of the Drummond basin and Anakie metamorphic complex.
The company's interest in northern Queensland.
The target does not outcrop, is overlain by an unrelated cover sequence and the source of anomalism has not been confirmed by drilling.
It is proximal to the Mt Coolon epithermal project and is prospective for classic Drummond basin-style epithermal gold, as well as other intrusive-related mineralisation systems.
Importantly, it has never been tested by any modern exploration.
And thus, it is all of the above that adds up to an attractive overall picture, according to Reynolds.
“We are exceptionally excited by all of the newsflow that will come from all of this activity over the next 4-6 months, and shareholders should be too,” he said.
- Daniel Paproth