Krakatoa Resources Ltd (ASX:KTA) has delivered a “major milestone”, in the form of a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) in the order of 5 million tonnes at 0.14% rubidium (Rb2O) and 0.05% lithium (Li2O) at its 100%-owned King Tamba Project, 80 kilometres northwest from Mt Magnet, WA.
The company is excited by the potential at King Tamba, which it says “contains a basket of unique critical metals” including rubidium, lithium, tantalum, niobium and tin.
High-value critical metals
Along with Krakatoa’s Mt Clere Project, which includes the Tower rare earths deposit, King Tamba allows the company to continue to focus on the rapid development of its high-value critical metals project portfolio to supply into a growing market and play a role in global decarbonisation efforts.
The size of MRE has exceeded the company’s expectations and is larger than its exploration target.
In particular, the rubidium oxide grade of 0.14% is in line with peers and Krakatoa considers it a strong platform to continue to develop King Tamba.
Mineralisation starts from near the surface, is defined by zones of mineralised pegmatites of up to 70 metres in thickness and, pleasingly, remains open in all directions.
The company will go in with an infill drill campaign in the hopes of significantly expanding the size and scale of the resource, and to collect metallurgical samples.
"Impressive mineral resource"
“Delivery of this impressive maiden mineral resource estimate at King Tamba is an excellent result for Krakatoa and our shareholders,” Krakatoa CEO Mark Major said.
“We have defined a robust resource at a solid grade and the overall numbers have come in beyond expectations, which places the company in an exciting position to continue to develop King Tamba into a major, multi-commodity, critical metals project."
Krakatoa plans to kick off regional exploration activities soon and the first priority will be investigating known pegmatite systems to the south of the mineral resource. The company has made the call to advance into preliminary development and economic studies.
“Work completed to date has provided the company with a better geological understanding of the pegmatite clusters surrounding the old historical tantalum mine and we believe there are great opportunities to significantly grow the mineral resource through exploration and development efforts in 2023 and beyond," Major said.
“The current pricing environment and demand forecasts for rubidium are very strong. Historically, the primary use of rubidium carbonate has been associated with speciality glasses in high-tech equipment.
“However, in more recent times we are starting to see companies across the globe explore the use of rubidium in perovskite solar cells and sodium-ion batteries due to the shift towards more renewable energy sources.
High-value green metal
“Krakatoa is excited about the future of rubidium as a high-value green metal and believes the market demand will hold strong during the long-term energy transition cycle.
"Importantly, we also have exposure to a basket of high-value critical metals outside of rubidium at King Tamba and look forward to increasing the project in size and scale to deliver long-term value to all our stakeholders.
“2023 is shaping up to be a busy year at King Tamba and completion of the maiden mineral resource estimate allows the company to commence strategic discussions with end users and industry groups related to potential development, funding, offtake arrangements and downstream processing opportunities.”