Nexus Minerals Ltd (ASX:NXM) has jumped on an opportunity to prospect for critical minerals across an underexplored mineral belt in Victoria and New South Wales.
The polymetallic explorer is eyeing around 15,000 square kilometres of prospective ground over the Lachlan Orogen’s Wagga-Omeo Zone (WOZ) — a district renowned for lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites and tin mineralisation.
Today’s announcement culminates an intensive 12-month study, designed to stake Nexus’ claim as a pioneering critical minerals explorer in an overlooked region.
Nexus’ critical minerals portfolio.
Establishing significant ground position
Nexus managing director Andy Tudor said: “Whilst focused on our Wallbrook project in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, it has also been a very productive 12 months of work that has led Nexus to be able to establish a significant ground position, in such a prospective region.
“The results from our desktop review and the opportunities identified have led us to undertake one of the largest pegging exercises of ground in NSW.
“Field crews are already on the ground across multiple project areas commencing initial ground truthing.
“This critical mineral search will be undertaken alongside the exploration planned for the company’s Bethanga porphyry copper-gold project”.
Opportunity knocks in NSW
Nexus reviewed geology and lithogeochemical data from the WOZ in southern NSW as part of a regional-scale approach to select exploration ground for LCT pegmatites in the Lachlan Orogen.
Rather than taking the magnifying glass to known lithium and tin occurrences, the explorer hunted for intrusive rocks that were prospective for LCT pegmatites.
A review of open file geology and whole-rock geochemistry confirmed that much of the exploration ground applied for in southern NSW is underlain by reduced, fractionated, peraluminous S-type granites — similar to those associated with spodumene-bearing pegmatites in northeastern Victoria’s Dorchap Range.
It’s hoped that Nexus’ 15,000-square-kilometre ground position and its first-mover advantage will help it pinpoint the most prospective zones and form its future exploration strategy.
Victoria holds LCT potential
Further south, Nexus has kicked off fieldwork on its Granya LCT pegmatite project in Victoria, acquired in April 2021 as part of the Bethanga porphyry copper-gold buy.
The explorer has also inked an option deal for the Merrimac LCT camp, giving it nine months to exclusively conduct reconnaissance on the Dorchap Range asset.
Thanks to recent work in northeast Victoria, Nexus now has five LCT pegmatite-prospective tenements under application, increasing its exposure to this critical battery mineral.
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