Mogul Games is the latest Australian tech company to switch its focus and look to gain a position in the race to identify and develop critical minerals for the “booming” clean energy market.
The eSports company has entered into five binding sale and purchase agreements to acquire a range of lithium and rare earth projects in highly prospective battery metals provinces in Australia and Canada.
In Canada Mogul is acquiring an 80% interest in the Apollo lithium project, Adina South Project, Adina West project and Margot Lake project.
In Australia the company is picking up an 80% interest in the Voyager Project and a 100% interest in the Lefroy project.
As part of its revitalisation, the company is planning to change its name to ‘Lithium Galaxy’ and appoint experienced critical minerals company executive, Ignatius (Iggy) Kim-Seng Tan, as non-executive chairman.
Lithium Galaxy will trade on the ASX under ticker symbol ‘LGX’.
Capital raising
The support the focus change, the company is planning to undertake a public offer of shares under a full form prospectus for the issue to raise up to $4,500,000.
On completion, the company will acquire an 80% interest in the Canadian lithium projects and the Voyager project, and a 100% interest in the Lefroy project.
The funds raised will also be used to support initial exploration at its Canadian and Australian projects.
Flagship Canadian project
Looking to hit the ground running, the company has already identified the Apollo lithium project as its “flagship” and made it the focus of an initial accelerated exploration and development program.
The Apollo Lithium Project consists of 466 claims covering an area of approximately 240 sq. km in the highly sought after James Bay region in north-west Québec.
The company will kick off exploration with the systematic mapping and geochemical sampling of 17 pegmatite outcrops and the NE-SW trending topographic highs previously identified by the Québec government.
The early exploration will also include an airborne geophysical and remote survey to aide in the identifying maiden high-priority drill targets.
Adina and Margot Lake projects
Also located in the James Bay region, the Adina South and Adina West projects consist of 89 claims covering an area of approximately 45 sq. km.
The company’s main focus at these projects is the identification and delineation of a maiden JORC resource at priority target areas.
The initial exploration programme at the Adina and Margot Lake projects will include preliminary field mapping and geochemical soil sampling to assist in drill program planning.
Previous mapping of the region by the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) has identified several occurrences of Mica-Granite Pegmatites and Granodiorite Pegmatites in the project area.
Exploration plans for the Lefroy and Voyager projects will include surface mapping, geochemical soil sampling and geophysical surveys to identify and prioritise drill targets.
WA’s Lefroy project
The Lefroy Project is located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
It consists of exploration licences E15/1877 and E15/1876, each comprising seven blocks (approximately 21 sq. km) for a total area of approximately 42 sq. km.
Funds raised from the public offer will be used to fund an exploration program including surface mapping, geochemical soil sampling and geophysical surveys to identify drill targets for drill testing.
Voyager project in Tasmania
The Voyager project consists of two exploration license applications, ELA32/2022 and ELA40/2022 in northern and eastern Tasmania respectively. ELA32/2022 covers an area of approximately 187 sq km, while ELA40/2022 covers an area of approximately 198 sq km.
Voyager looms as a promising rare earth element target with its proximity to ABx Group’s (ASX: ABX) exciting Deep Leads and Rubble Mound ionic absorption clay-type (IAC) rare earth element (REE) discoveries.
EV demand driving interest
Mogul is just one of many tech and even precious metals companies that have decided to reboot themselves as critical minerals explorers and developers in the face of the global electric vehicle (EV) boom.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts EV sales will hit 14 million units by the end of 2023, representing a 35% year-on-year increase with new purchases accelerating in the second half of this year.
It believes that as a result, electric cars could account for 18% of total global car sales across the full calendar year.
