Comet Resources’s Project Portfolio with Commodities Exposed to Low Emissions Revolution

Focussed on the exploration of battery commodities, Comet Resources Limited (ASX:CRL) is progressing well on its project portfolio in line with its exploration goal for the low carbon revolution.

While Comet holds its flagship Springdale graphite project in NSW’s Northern region, the company has proposed the acquisition of the copper centric Barraba Project.

The company highlighted significant key developments in its recently released quarterly update ending 31 December 2019.

High-Grade Graphite Results at the Diamond Drilling Program

Between late August and mid-September, Comet Resources completed 12 pre-collared diamond drill holes for 1005.7 metres at Springdale. The primary purpose of the drill was to provide the bulk sample material that would be used for detailed metallurgical testwork.

Meanwhile, it was expected to aid in infilling structural as well as geological information on the graphite mineralization at Western and Northern Resource areas.

The completion of the assays of the drilling program highlighted several broad zones that contained shallow and high-grade graphite. The key drilling results includes the following:

• 57m @ 22.38% Total Graphitic Carbon (TGC)
• 17m @ 16.55% TGC
• 10.9m @ 10.61% TGC
• 42.5m @ 17.02% TGC including the highest grade graphite of 3.23m @ 51.02% TGC

Metallurgical Testworks and Aerial Electromagnetic Survey

Comet Resources engaged a highly experienced specialist team for conducting Aerial Electromagnetic (EM) Survey, Metallurgical Testwork and Diamond Drilling. Dr Evan Kirby with over 40 years of experience in the mining sector is overseeing the designing and management of the testwork program, conducted by Nagrom.

Metallurgical testwork that involves characterising the graphite and establishing recoveries is underway in Perth, and the results are due in March 2020 quarter.

Furthermore, to evaluate the spectrum of off-take markets and analyse the value-add potential of high-grade graphite at Springdale, International testwork program in Germany would be carried out using samples produced in Australian testwork. While the testwork would commence in Q1 2020, the results are anticipated in Q2 2020.

EM survey, employed to increase the capital efficiency of the company’s exploration, emerges a powerful tool for targeting shallow, high-grade graphite mineralization. With eighteen kilometres of strike length, various priority graphite targets near the resource have been identified by the Survey.

Capital Raising and Funding Backing Comet’s Exploration Plan

During December Quarter, Comet Resources successfully raised $562,500 capital via private placement of 22.5M fully paid ordinary shares at 2.5cps, which the company planned to use towards advancing further Springdale project towards next development stage. In addition to the general expenditure, the capital would provide funding to the metallurgical testworks.

Comet was successful in securing the government funding for carrying out its research and development operations. The application for R&D grant, which was submitted by the company in December in 2019, was approved by the government, securing the funding of $480k in January 2020.

Additional capital raising was secured in February 2020 by the firm commitments of investors, for raising $2M via issuing 80M fully paid shares at the subscription price of 2.5 cents per share. It provided strong endorsement to the acquisition of the Barraba Copper Project.

Going Ahead with the Proposed Barraba Copper Project

Comet Resources announced the proposed acquisition of Barraba Copper Project that is situated in Northern NSW. The company believes that the new copper project complements the existing Springdale project as both graphite and copper are the battery commodities that find their use in Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), thereby assisting the de-carbonization of the global transport network.

The company successfully fulfilled the key condition precedent to progress the acquisition of Barraba Copper Project receiving firm commitments for $2M capital raising.

The project area encompasses the historical Murchison copper and Gulf Creek Mines and sits along the Peel Fault line. VMS style mineralization containing zinc, lead, copper, and other precious metals are known to be hosted by the region.

The exploration in the area is planned to commence in Q1 2020. The initial drilling plan includes:

• Drilling GDC1-4 below known lodes for extensions;
• Evidence of additional parallel or blind lodes TO be tested through Downhole IP;
• GCD5/6 to test IP anomaly.

Under the Leadership of Matthew O’Kane

Comet Resources appointed Matthew O’Kane as the MD of the company. With the 25 years of career firmly focussed on the commodity and mining sector, Mr O’Kane has held several executive roles across the public as well as private companies in Australia, Asia and the USA.

Comet stays committed in advancing with its metallurgical testwork programs and identifying significant relationships for the Springdale project, along with the Barraba project acquisition and drilling agenda.

CRL stock closed at $0.018 on 4 March 2020.

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