ASX-listed Macro metals on Tuesday announced an agreement to acquire an 80% interest in three manganese projects in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The company entered into an agreement with fellow ASX-listed Firebird Metals to acquire the Wandanya, Disraeli and Midgengadge tenements. Macro will invest A$150 000 over 12 months at the tenements and complete at least ten reverse circulation drill holes, with 100 m to be drilled on each of the tenements, to earn its interest.

The agreement with Firebird is Macro’s first joint venture and also marks the launch of its mining services division.

“My aim is to build core project development, construction and operational teams within Macro supported by an appropriately resourced corporate team. There is a minimum overhead required regardless of whether you are supporting one operation or several and the key to being sustainable through the commodity cycles is to get the unit cost of support and operational services down as quickly as possible,” said MD Simon Rushton.

By providing mining services to third parties, Macro aims to scale its teams quicker than by only providing services. “This means we have more resources, a wider array of skills and experience, redundancy and flexibility sooner; all of which are crucial for safely running a profitable, sustainable diversified mining and mining services business.”

“We will look to take the organic mining services revenue and our 80% profit share from exploiting the DSO manganese and investing it into our iron-ore projects as well as growing

our mining services capabilities. Importantly, this potential revenue may enable us to evaluate and organically fund a future manganese beneficiation operation likely using simple dense media separation post crushing and screening,” said Rushton.

Meanwhile, Firebird said disposing off the noncore tenements would enable the company to continue its strategic focus on the Oakover project, in the Pilbara, and its Chinese lithium manganese iron phosphate strategy.

“By partnering with Macro, we leverage their expertise and resources to drive the development of these tenements, which not only ensures that they receive the necessary investment and development attention, but also allows Firebird to benefit from potential production and value growth without immediate capital outlay,” said Firebird MD Peter Allen.