Tawana Resources NL said Dec. 20 that it has decided to exercise the option to acquire Lithco No. 2 Pty. Ltd., which holds an earn-in right over the Bald Hill lithium-tantalum mine in Western Australia.

This will result in the company becoming a joint venture partner of Alliance Mineral Assets Ltd. in the Bald Hill project.

The ASX-listed junior explorer started due diligence in October over the option to acquire Lithco.

As part of the due diligence exercise, Tawana completed about 60 reverse circulation and core holes at the property totaling 6,800 meters, which yielded pegmatite intercepts over a strike length of 2 kilometers at depths of up to 200 meters.

The area that returned most visual spodumene covers 900 meters by 500 meters and is open to the west and south. Drilling is expected to restart in late December.

Meanwhile, the company expects an engineering study on the project to commence in early January 2017, and is likely to explore a staged development approach to reduce time and cost to initial production.

In addition, the company is advancing talks with off-take parties for the sale of spodumene.