Arcadia Minerals soars 135% as company posts mammoth lithium resource upgrade

Arcadia Minerals (ASX:AM7) shareholders will be elated today as the company’s share price jumps over 130% to 46c. 

When it entered a trading halt last Friday, shares were less than 20c. 

What’s driving the rise?: A mineral resource increase to the company’s Namibian Bitterwasser lithium project estimates of 500%, pushing the total amount of producible lithium oxide to 286,900 tonnes. 

What’s more, the company is currently undertaking testwork to convert its lithium oxide to lithium carbonate; the latter being a more readily marketable product into EV battery supply chains. 

Early testwork success

Should the company be able to make that work (without losing too much product in the process,) it is likely Arcadia will be well positioned to enjoy a higher-profile operation in the coming months and years. So will its shareholders. 

With regards to loss, the company is already looking at some promising data from early tests. 

Testwork so far has shown the ability to recover up to 82% of valuable lithium mineralisation from host materials. 

Arcadia notes it achieved this using ‘organic acids,’ suggesting wiggle room for ESG credentials; an increasingly favourable trait for many investors at the retail and institutional level. 

The company is teaming up with metallurgists from the South African University of Stellenbosch towards the creation of lithium carbonate.

Equivalent to 1% Lithium in rock 

“We’re encouraged by the increase in metal content at the Bitterwasser Litihum-in-Clay project, now equivalent to a 1% Lithium hard rock resource of 11.6Mt,” Arcadia CEO Philip le Roux said. 

“This resource is within the first twelve metres from surface, open at depth and covers only one of the known fourteen exposed clay pans in the area.” 

“There is potential to [further] expand the Bitterwasser lithium resource substantially.”

Brine exploration to be unveiled soon 

The company’s executive chairman, meanwhile, is excited for the next stage of exploration. 

“Our work program, which is based on the geological model for Bitterwasser, is to explore the vaster potential of the 4,000km² Bitterwasser basin for lithium brines,” Arcadia chairman Jurie Wessels said. 

“Details will be shortly announced.”

Arcadia's market cap sits at $21.4m as of lunchtime (August 24th).

The company ended the June quarter with $2.8m in cash.

$600 Namibian dollars converts to AUD$50.00.

To put the significance of today's movement into context, take a look at Arcadia's one year chart