Company Outline
Ethan has 100% of one advanced exploration licence, 100% of six Queen Victoria Crown Grant licences and has an option to earn an 80% interest in a further 3 exploration licences within one contiguous project surrounding the town of Northampton in Western Australia. The area of Northampton is mostly a farming community with well established infrastructure such as power, roads and water supplies.
The Northampton Mineral Belt is well known for its high grade outcrops of base and precious metals. A fact noted as early as the first Boer War of 1880 when the rich lead outcrops mined to fabricate bullets.
The Company has worked towards securing access to underexplored areas with prospectivity for base and precious metal deposits. Some of these areas have never had modern exploration completed on them, as either access had been denied or the licence had been held by private landholders under Queen Victoria Crown Grants.
The QVCGs over which Ethan holds access rights contain a large number of historic copper, lead and silver producing mines that date back to 1850. The QVCGs were awarded to private landholders prior to the forming of the State of Western Australia. Hence, the West Australian Government does not hold the mineral rights to the QVCGs nor is the Government permitted to grant exploration licences over the land. Native Title does not apply to QVCGs.
One of the most interesting exploration targets in the Company’s Northampton Project is in the Mary Springs area which is located on Vacant Crown and farming land. This area contains potential for lead, copper and zinc mineralisation. Outcrops were first mined at the turn of the century but not to any great depth. Surface samples have returned between 9.5% and 13.5% copper, with some native copper grading at 40%.
Recent reworking of this drill database by MineMap has outlined a JORC Inferred Resource as calculated by MineMap of some 145,000 tonnes @ 11.5%Pb for approximately 16,600 tonnes of contained lead metal. The resource is open in all directions and work to date has not yet defined the copper, zinc, gold and silver content.
Ethan has spent approximately 3 years negotiating and signing Mining Access Agreements with QVCGs holders, as well as a Land Access Agreements with the Mary Springs’ landholders. As a result Ethan now has clear access to exploration rights covering some 985km². Ethan has also entered into an agreement with the local Native Title Claimant Group, paving the way for the Company to gain access to over 50,000 acres of prospective land overlapping Ethan’s Northampton Project.