'Needle in a haystack': Mining company searching Border and North East for lithium

Kali Metals has mapped out around 2000 square kilometres of mostly freehold land to explore around Jingellic and Tallangatta.

The region is historically known for tin, but technical advisor for Kali Metals Luke Mortimer said all the key indicators were there for lithium.

Mr Mortimer said high quality lithium could be found in the mineral spodumene, which Dart Mining, a company with multiple Victorian projects, has discovered in parts of the North East.

"We've got about 800 square kilometres in what we call the Tallangatta project in Victoria and on the NSW side we've got the Jingellic project and that's about 1200 square metres," he said.

"Spodumene in theory holds about 6 per cent lithium oxide. It is crushed and the lithium is extracted out of it and that goes on to be used in batteries.

"These pegmatites (coarse rocks made up of crystals), if you're lucky, might be 20 metres thick and could go for several hundred metres. They usually come in a swarm, so you'll find more than one, but it's a needle in a haystack.

"The proof of concept has already come from Dart Mining that these rocks do form here. It all comes down to the geology."

Australia is the world's largest producer of lithium ahead of Chile and China, with a major hard rock lithium industry in Western Australia.

"Over there, the lithium mineralisation started approximately two-and-a-half billion years ago, whereas the rocks here are approximately 400 million years old, so there's a massive difference," Mr Mortimer said.

"No one thought you'd ever find lithium over here because they say the geology is not right, but that's not the case.

"One of the big indicators is all the tin occurrences. The granite source rocks that produce tin also go on to produce lithium.

"It is an early mover play and this is potentially a new lithium province."

Mr Mortimer said Kali Metals had commenced its operations in the region with "low impact exploration", given modern technologies such as airborne surveys cannot unearth lithium as easily as other metals.

"Lithium deposits and these hard rock pegmatites are geophysically dead, so you've got to do it on foot," he said.

"All of our programs involve a systematic grid sampling of the soil. We're starting one now in the Jingellic project where over a large area we collect a soil sample on a 150 by 150-metre grid.

"It might only be about 100 to 200 grams of material, so we dig a hole, take some soil, put it in a packet and fill the hole back up.

"We'll collect hundreds if not thousands of samples over a large area and we send those samples to a laboratory and they will do a multi-element analysis, not just for lithium, but for a whole suite of elements that we use to help find what we're after.

"One airborne survey that we are using and is LiDAR (light detection and ranging), which is like SONAR from the air. In areas that are vegetated, it sees right through the vegetation to the rock.

"The rocks that host lithium tend to be more resistant to erosion and stick up out of the ground.

"Ultimately, once you find one of these pegmatite dykes with spodumene in it, the goal would be to drill it and work out the quality and how much there is.

"This is a long term prospect that will take us a few years, but that's the game. If you find a massive lithium deposit, companies are made on them."

Mr Mortimer said the NSW and Victorian governments have critical minerals policies and strategies in place designed to incentivise companies to look for certain elements, with lithium on the list due to its requirement in energy transition.

Kali Metals was listed on the ASX on January 8 this year as a subsidiary of Kalamazoo Resources and Canadian company Karora Resources.

When it went to market, Mr Mortimer said Kali Metals hoped to attract $15 million in stakeholder support, but in just 30 minutes had commitments of $55 million.

Western Australian company Mineral Resources, which sponsors the AFL club West Coast Eagles' Perth headquarters, has an almost 15 per cent share in Kali Metals.

"The long term outlook for lithium, even though the price has collapsed a bit at the moment, is very strong because they haven't really found an alternative yet for lithium batteries," Mr Mortimer said.

"Quite a few European countries have said no more petrol vehicles from 2030, so they're going to need a lot of batteries.

"Dart Mining, I'll give them full credit, were the ones that announced they were finding these types of lithium pegmatites in the region. They've since discovered spodumene and that's given a real focus here.

"I think if we were to have some success, it would really turn the attention over here and it could become a pegging rush."

Kali Metals has four lithium projects under way in Western Australia, on top of its early searches around Jingellic and Tallangatta.