Tivan to begin drilling in Sandover after lead and silver strikes

A Territory company will begin drilling for silver and lead at a lucrative Central Australian prospect by the end of the year. Read what it is.

The Northern Territory Government has approved drilling at Tivan’s high-grade Sandover lead and silver prospects.

The stock exchange announcement came just weeks after the Territory-based company was forced to cover almost $60m in losses racked-up by its previous owners.

The Department of Lands, Planning and Environment on Wednesday approved a deemed mining license with a four year expiry phase to drill at the site for Tivan to explore the Sandover site.

Tivan flagged in March it had identified a large high-grade lead strike at Sandover, and the following month revealed it had also discovered significant silver deposits at the site.

Located about 100km north of Alice Springs over about 8000sq km, Sandover has emerged as a Territory exploration base for Tivan, which partnered with Earth AI to identify the lead and silver prospects.

Grant Wilson chief executive Tivan

Earth AI identified the resources using surface rock and soil sampling programs, returning grades of up to 23.8 per cent lead and 469 grams per tonne of silver.

The prospects are about 5km west of the Alice Springs to Darwin railway line on Aileron Station.

In a stock exchange statement, Tivan said it would also finalise a mineral exploration deed with the Central Land Council to apply to different forms of land tenure at Sandover.

Tivan executive chairman Grant Wilson said the purpose of the deed was to recognise the rights and interests of TOs and Native Title Holders.

“The Board notes the complex regulatory and cultural heritage frameworks that apply to early-stage resource projects in the Northern Territory,” Tivan’s ASX statement said.

“Tivan’s regulatory approval reflects the recent transition from the Mining Management Act 2001 to the Environmental Protection Act 2019, effective 1 July 2024. Tivan supports the new policy framework, as providing greater environmental oversight for ground-disturbing activities, while streamlining the approval process for future exploration initiatives.”

Earlier this year, the Sandover Project was upgraded to a strategic priority at Tivan, which this year received two exploration grants under the government’s Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations program.

The company received $80,000 to co-fund the diamond drilling program at the Aileron prospect and $49,000 to co-fund a geophysics program, also at Aileron.

The grants are dwarfed by the company’s $57.3m impairment of expenditure from losses by TNG, Tivan’s predecessor, which had planned to source vanadium at the Mount Peake prospect near Alice Springs.

Mr Wilson immediately dumped Mount Peake when he formed Tivan and has since shifted focus on sourcing vanadium from the Speewah deposit in the Kimberly.

He hopes to begin drilling at Sandover by the end of 2024.