Tantalex Lithium Resources [CSE:TTX / FSE:1T0] is an African miner focused on three metals, namely lithium, tin and tantalum. Its flagship project is the Manono tailings project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although it has a couple of other interesting projects on the go including one with extensive hard rock lithium potential.
We met the management team at Tantalex and were favourably impressed with their strategy. The focus is on a substantial tailings project covering 105m mt across 11 dumps that contain lithium, tin and tantalum. The company said in June it was exercising its option to acquire an additional 27% stake in the JV running the project (Minocom) taking its total stake to 52%.
A Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) prepared by MSA Group is expected imminently, making this miner one to watch very closely indeed. A bulk sample from Manono has been sent to Coremet in South Africa (9 mt) and we are expecting results from that too. And then there is an anticipated PEA Q4 of this year.
Just how big is this project?
But given the scale, this is the largest lithium tailings resource in the world. Stock is looking crazily cheap at the moment, at a mere 7 cents Canadian if you are buying on CSE (one investor exercised 10m warrants at a price of 5 cents this summer). Shares were as high as 17 cents in November. We know of more than one investor that has loaded up considerably with stock in the last four or five months.
Apart from the tailings project, Tantalex also has a pegmatite corridor exploration project, 25km long and 5km wide, which has been defined by an aeromagnetic survey. The miner is continuing to survey the corridor, located southwest of the 400 mt AVZ Minerals project, which extends through a couple of licenses it already controls. Again, this offers some very interesting potential lithium hard rock prospects. Aircore drilling, RC drilling and diamond drilling are all on the agenda.
Other projects on the go
A quick mention also of the company’s Lubule Project, which is a tin and tantalum alluvial rich area, sitting above the company’s pegmatite corridor license. This project has been fully permitted and production here is scheduled to start imminently. It is projected to produce approximately 1400 mt of tin concentrate and 220 dmt tantalum concentrate per annum.
Hadley Natus, Chairman of the company, with whom we met recently, is an impressive individual with plenty of experience in the African commodities space, having also worked at Trafigura and MRI Trading. He is making sure that the company invests in social projects on the ground in Congo, including infrastructure improvements, a rural hospital, a school and an educational farm.
We are seeing a number of convertible debt holders converting into common shares at around the 5 cent mark at the moment. Others have extended convertible debentures at a reduced rate of 4%. Some 50.15m options and 2.5m warrants remain outstanding at last count. A further 120m shares are reserved for issuance.
This could shape up to be a really extensive project. Much of the potential minerals are already topside, having been mined historically. If the assays are good, the stock could really jump. Stay tuned.
