Australian Critical Mins jumps +13% on iron ore find at former lithium play

Australian Critical Minerals (ASX:ACM) has seen its shares jump +13% to on an iron ore find in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

The iron ore find in question is based on rockchip samples gathered in a recent mapping and fieldwork run – but the highest results sampled came in at over 60% iron (Fe), which included nine grabs. That’s 5% of all samples.

A further 63% of samples exceeded 55% Fe; 85% were over 50%.

The company reported low phosphorous counts which could indicate a high-quality iron ore deposit sits underground (or nearby) but this would need to be verified in drilling proper.

Adding to geotechs’ hopes of finding such a deposit in this regard is that the samples were taken across a combined strike length of 8km at Cooletha with individual Channel Iron Deposits (CIDs) understood to be on-site sizing up to 3km with widths up to 300m.

In this light, the potential scope of what discovery may be made appears to be the catalyst driving up ACM’s price on Wednesday. Iron ore prices were fetching US$102.65/tn in Singapore as at 1pm Sydney time.

But there’s also another element to this story – the company has turned a lithium project into an iron ore play.

ACM listed in 2023 with Cooletha advertised as a lithium project, and not iron ore – thus the disparity between the company’s name, and, the fact it’s now a net iron ore explorer.

That, too, explains some of the upward price action – now it looks like the company could turn around its ill fortunes borne from exposure to macro.

So long as iron ore prices can stay above US$100/tn – which the Australian Government isn’t counting on for 2025. At least some of Wall Street see it closer to US$95/tn throughout the looming new year, though, Wall Street is fickle.

(ACM’s find is kind of like the reverse situation impacting CuFe Ltd, a company with a name short for ‘Copper-Iron,’ but which ditched its iron project earlier this year.)

ACM last traded at 11cps.

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