Castle Minerals (ASX:CDT) moves in on Kendenup Graphite project

• Castle Minerals (CDT) to acquire the Kendenup Graphite project in the southwest region of Western Australia, from Historic Gold Mines
• The company is also applying for an adjacent exploration licence covering the Kendenup graphite mine, and nearby Martigallup graphite occurrences
• For the granted licence, CDT will pay an upfront cash payment of $40,000 upon execution of the agreement and satisfaction of certain conditions
• Once the application is approved and all access permits are acquired, Castle intends to undertake a staged, multi-phase exploration program
• Shares last traded 7.1 per cent lower at 2.6 cents

Castle Minerals (CDT) is set to acquire the Kendenup Graphite project in the southwest of Western Australia from Historic Gold Mines.

Castle has entered into a tenement sale agreement and also applied for an adjacent exploration licence covering the historical Kendenup graphite mine and the nearby Martigallup graphite occurrences.

According to Managing Director Stephen Stone, the acquisition of the project is “highly complementary” to the company’s “growing battery metals interests” which comprise the Kambale graphite project and the Wilgee Springs and Woodcutters lithium projects.

“We can see a lot of upside at Kendenup and are very keen to progress this project as rapidly as possible and as we are all of our battery metals projects, with several work programs about to commence or as soon as various licences have been granted,” he said.

For the granted licence, CDT will pay an upfront cash payment of $40,000 upon execution of the agreement and satisfaction of certain conditions.

A deferred amount of $60,000 will then be payable at Castles election in either cash or shares, once a “trigger event” has occurred. This will have taken place once CDT expends at least $450,000 inclusive of a minimum 3000 metres of drilling and access agreement costs within five years.

While reconnaissance regional programs for gold and base metals have been undertaken across the Kendenup licence area, the company has observed little modern exploration completed.

At the Martigallup application area however, Winward Resources completed soil sampling and a geophysical survey which defined a number of anomalies.

Two diamond drill holes tested one target, which intersected zones of graphite with minor sulphide mineralisation.

Observations indicate that the anomalies are along strike from the Kendenup workings, and CDT believes this may represent an extension to the horizon that hosts the graphite.

Once the application is approved and all access permits are acquired, Castle intends to undertake a staged, multi-phase exploration program.

The plan is to start reprocessing and reinterpretation of available geophysical datasets, as well as re-logging and assaying of historical diamond drill hole core for graphite.

Once access agreements are negotiated, the company plans to extend versatile time domain electromagnetic coverage over the project and drill test anomalies as warranted.

Shares last traded 7.1 per cent lower at 2.6 cents.