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Kula expands lithium footprint near Greenbushes mine

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Matt BirneySponsored
The Kirup project is located south of Kula Gold’s Brunswick lithium project and near the Greenbushes lithium mine.
Camera IconThe Kirup project is located south of Kula Gold’s Brunswick lithium project and near the Greenbushes lithium mine. Credit: File

Kula Gold has entered into an agreement to acquire a 70 per cent interest in the lithium and related minerals of Sentinel Exploration’s Kirup project only 25km from the world-class Greenbushes lithium mine in the South West.

The Kirup project covers an area of 117 square kilometres and complements Kula’s existing Brunswick project that sits around 20km to the north.

Kula says the purchase price includes a cash reimbursement of exploration expenditure of $200,000, 12 million fully paid ordinary shares and a further $2 million in fully paid ordinary shares upon announcing a JORC maiden resource on the Kirup project of a minimum of 10 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 1 per cent lithium or higher. Kula will pay $70,000 upon signing the agreement and $130,000 once completing the acquisition for reimbursement of exploration expenditure incurred by Sentinel.

The agreement defines lithium rights to contain lithium, tin, tantalum, scandium, caesium, gallium, niobium, yttrium, tungsten, rubidium and total rare earth oxides.

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Sentinel has previously identified potential lithium bearing pegmatites at the Kirup project and has collated data from previous exploration activities to create a prospectivity map. Kula says it is planning on adding to the available data with a detailed and targeted pegmatite mapping and geochemical sampling program of its own at the project. Targets identified from geochemistry anomalies will be priority ranked for drill testing.

We have secured an outstanding exploration opportunity near our existing Brunswick Project to add to our existing portfolio of assets in Western Australia. We will proceed to exploring these tenements in a methodological step-by-step manner.

Kula Gold Chief Executive Officer, Ric Dawson

Kula’s Brunswick asset is a 300 square kilometre land holding prospective for a suite of commodities in addition to lithium including gold, copper, nickel and platinum group elements, or “PGEs” such as platinum, palladium and rhodium. Recent mapping unveiled a 2km long and up to 300m wide pegmatite target at the site.

The world-leading Greenbushes deposit is a behemoth. It is recognised as containing the highest grade of lithium in addition to being one of the largest hard rock deposits of spodumene in the world and its output accounts for approximately 22 per cent of the global lithium market. The mine contributed 50 per cent of the total of 267,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalents mined in Australia in 2021. IGO holds a 49 per cent interest in a global joint venture with Tianqi Lithium Corporation. The joint venture has a 51 per cent interest in the Greenbushes mine with the remaining 49 per cent held by US chemicals giant Albermarle.

Whilst Kula still needs shareholder approval to complete the acquisition of the Kirup project it is expected to be finalised by the end of March next year. The addition of a significant sized tenement within shouting distance of the famous Greenbushes mine means Kula could be off to a flying start in 2023.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au

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