ASX: JBY

Shares on Issue: 60.5m

Share Price: 40c

Market Cap: $24M

The company raised $6 million at 20c per share in its September initial public offering and has seen its shares as much as triple since then.

JBY holds just over 30,000 hectares of ground in Canada’s red-hot James Bay lithium district – home to monster lithium deposits including Patriot Battery Metals’ Corvette and Allkem’s James Bay and a number of other emerging discoveries.

With a market cap of just $24 million and its maiden exploration campaign in Canada’s James Bay lithium district just getting started, investors are set to hear a lot more from JBY in the weeks and months ahead. 

 

Highlights:
  • Maiden exploration program commenced in mid-September immediately after its ASX listing.
     
  • Flagship La Grande Lithium Project located directly along-trend from Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX: PMT) world-class CV5 lithium deposit.
     
  • One of the largest landholdings on the La Grande Lithium Trend ~55km.
     
  • Two fields of outcropping large, fractionated pegmatites identified at Aero over a 5km strike length.
     
  • Extensive spodumene mineralisation discovered over a 2.5km strike length at the Aero Property.

 

A new and rapidly growing global lithium district

James Bay is rapidly emerging as one of world’s largest and fastest growing hubs for hard rock spodumene deposits, now rivalling the Pilbara in Western Australia in terms of contained spodumene (millions of tonnes of contained Li2O).

 

 

James Bay Minerals is one of the largest landholders in this prolific and under-explored district. JBY executive director Andrew Dornan likens the area to the Pilbara in the 1970s. “We see it building into a bigger region,” he said.

JBY’s La Grande project – comprising the Joule, Aero and Aqua properties – sit within Neo-Archean rocks in greenstone belts with major regional faults and include wide deformation zones of up to 1km – considered the main elements for lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites. At Aero, JBY has found two fields of 31 fractionated pegmatites – fractionation is associated with lithium mineralisation.

The company has already discovered spodumene crystals at Aero, as well as at Aqua. The recent White Bear discovery made by Fin Resources is just 200m from Aqua. The company is targeting the start of drilling at Aero in the first half of 2024.

 

See James Bay Minerals Executive Director interviewed by Bell Direct’s Market Analyst Grady Wulff on the company’s rapid progress since listing in September and the huge potential of the James Bay district.   Click here to view

 

Key recent announcements: Links below

Elevated lithium readings from LIBS at the Aero Property 

James Bay increases La Grande Project by 70% 

Second field of fractionated pegmatite dykes at Aero 

Spodumene discovered at Aero Property 

 

A tier-1 team, with extensive experience at the big end of town

JBY isn’t only in the right neighbourhood. It also has the right team. Dornan has worked for major miners, including lithium market leaders Pilbara Minerals and Tianqi Lithium, while chairman Gerard O’Donovan is another Pilbara alumni.

The board is rounded out by former Nemaska Lithium director Judy Baker and founding Primero Group director Dean Ercegovic. Between them, they have 60 years of lithium experience in Quebec and have been involved in the development of 10 lithium projects.

 

Lithium market
Lithium chemicals and concentrate prices have slumped this year and many analysts are forecasting an oversupply situation. However, even projects in tier one jurisdictions are coming online later than first planned.

“One thing I know is projects don’t finish on time and when they do, they don’t meet the ramp-up curve,” Dornan said. Electric vehicle sales remain strong and continue to show quarter-on-quarter growth.

“The demand is still there, stocks in China are low and I think we’ll see the price start to creep up again in the next 6-12 months,” Dornan said.

The majors are clearly unperturbed by the falling price, using it as an opportunity to consolidate. Albemarle Corporation, SQM, Mineral Resources and Hancock Prospecting have all been active in recent months, with Western Australia the focus.

Dornan said the recent action has left little room for others in WA, while Chile’s lithium sector was being nationalised and Africa faced geopolitical issues.

“They really only have one other place to go and that’s the James Bay lithium district in Canada,” he said.