Chariot Corporation Limited (ASX:CC9) Managing Director Shanthar Pathmanathan discusses reasons behind the company's expansion of its Black Mountain holding.
Peter Milios: I'm Peter Milios from the Finance News Network and today, I'm talking with Chariot Corporation (ASX:CC9). Their ASX ticket code is "CC9" and they have a market cap of around $45m. Chariot Corporation is a mineral exploration company focused on discovering and developing high-grade and near-surface lithium opportunities in the United States. And here to tell us more is Chariot Managing Director Shanthar Pathmanathan. Shanthar, welcome back to the network.
Shanthar Pathmanathan: Thanks for having me, Peter. Absolute pleasure to be here.
Peter Milios: Thank you, Shanthar. First up, congrats on the expansion of your flagship Black Mountain Project, but can you elaborate on the details of this expansion?
Shanthar Pathmanathan: Peter, what we're starting to see is that Black Mountain is a heavily mineralised mountain, right? It stands out in the prairies in Wyoming as a standalone feature. It has lithium endowment. We've intersected the lithium endowment at multiple levels now, so 1.74m, 45m at depth, and more results to come shortly. We've also encountered base metals at depth, so we think it's a secondary play, base metals, and potentially also gold.
The assays are in, but whilst we're waiting for the assays, we wanted to preempt any competition emerging around our property. So we have acquired, by staking this ground ourselves, another 218 claims on top of the 134 claims we previously had. So we've grown our land position there by about 206 per cent. It's a preemptive measure to fend off any competition coming and taking property next to our original Black Mountain area.
Peter Milios: Okay, Shanthar. And can we expect to see any further expansion of this project to further eliminate competition?
Shanthar Pathmanathan: I'm confident that'll happen, Peter. There's some private land there we need to acquire. Conversations will start shortly on that in and within our project area. We also need to expand it. So as I've said, we've got lithium potential base metals and gold potential at the same property, Black Mountain. So, I'm confident that Black Mountain will be further expanded as the drilling continues at that project.
Peter Milios: And, moving on to the second part of your announcement, Chariot announced it has increased its interest in Wyoming lithium from 91.9 per cent to 93.9 per cent. Can you explain why that is and if you expect to increase that figure?
Shanthar Pathmanathan: As at IPO, we started off with 91.9 per cent. We had a geologist partner who was a minority interest holder. We are the sole funder of that project. So, by virtue of spending capital there, we get more shares in that vehicle, and we've spent capital, done the drilling. We've increased our stake to 93.9 per cent. You can expect us to get close to 100 per cent, and whatever residual shares the minority interest holder holds at that time, we will then look to buy that out to get to exactly 100 per cent down the road.
Peter Milios: And last question from me, what news flow can investors look forward to from Chariot in the near future?
Shanthar Pathmanathan: There's going to be tremendous news flow from the company, Peter, all Black Mountain-focused. All great base metals have been encountered in a secondary formation. The mountain appears to have been very productive for lithium. That would have been formed about a couple of billion years ago. And then, more recently, a few hundred million years ago for the base metals.
So, what investors can expect is more results from our first phase one drilling program and then the announcements around the phase two drilling program that'll commence.
We've been limited to five acres in this phase one drilling program. We wanted to get in there early, shortly after the IPO, and do some drilling. With the phase two, we'll have a 2,500-acre permit, so we'll have the ability to disturb 2,500 acres for the phase two program. So, that'll be a much more comprehensive, potentially, resource drill out at Black Mountain for the lithium and potentially also the base metals and gold.
Peter Milios: Shanthar, thank you so much for your time, and we'll be watching your progress with interest.
Shanthar Pathmanathan: Pleasure, Peter. Thank you for having me.
Peter Milios: Thank you.
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