Boutique legal and advisory firm Allion Partners chair Philip Lucas, ex-DJ Carmichael CEO Cadell Buss, and geoscientist Dr Alexander Shaw are three of the names behind the company, which is looking to raise A$8 million at 20c as part of a float that involves the issue of shares to Portugal's Mota-Engil Group.

 

ME Group will own about 31% of the company, and appoint executive Manuel Mota to the board, in return for vending in the Lake Chilwa heavy mineral sands project.

 

It has been involved with the project since 2014 and had worked up an inferred 61.6 million tonnes grading 3.9% at 2.4Mt total heavy mineral resource, mainly across four deposits along the western shore of the lake.

 

Assuming a successful listing, Chilwa aims to spend $4.5 million over the first two years to resolve questions about the current resource, progress studies, and undertake first pass exploration on its second licence on Chilwa Island, and new areas on the northern and southern shorelines.

 

Chilwa aims to test the mineralisation at depths below 10m and increase confidence in the resource as a priority.

 

ME completed 10,000m of shallow drilling, metallurgical and process test work studies a decade ago, but it was discovered a significant proportion of the samples were incorrectly assayed, overstating slimes and understating THM values.

 

It has resumed its interest in the project in recent times given demand for mineral sands.

 

The IPO hopeful said the project was attractive based on the known areas of identified resources, high value heavy mineral assemblage, encouraging concept studies and access to rail that could allow exports via the Nacala deepwater port in Mozambique some 700km away.

 

Chilwa also said ME Group has a substantial active contracting and infrastructure operations in Malawi and could be a development partner.    

 

The company aims to list in 2023.