AE Fuels Corporation has expanded its exploration footprint at the South Woodie Woodie manganese project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region following the grant of a five-year exploration licence.

The new licence, designated E46/1580, covers 34.95 square kilometres and increases the company’s total exploration tenure to 533.43 square kilometres. The tenement lies immediately west of the Pearana and Pothole prospect areas and approximately 33 kilometres south of the operating Woodie Woodie manganese mine.

The additional ground expands the contiguous land position around Pearana and Pothole, where AE Fuels recently completed a high-resolution gravity survey spanning 3,839 stations. That geophysical program defined 44 priority drill targets outside the footprints of the project’s existing Inferred Mineral Resource of 11.3 million tonnes grading 15.0% manganese. The company is advancing a 3,280-metre reverse circulation drill program to test those targets.

Regional activity continues to highlight the prospectivity of the Pilbara district, with Black Canyon Limited reporting drill results at its nearby Wandanya manganese project that intersected 7m at 40.7% Mn from 5 metres and extended its mineralised footprint 400 metres south.

Regional mapping indicates that the new tenement contains Pinjian Chert Breccia, a rock formation associated with manganese mineralisation at the Woodie Woodie mine and nearby prospects. Interpreted structural trends intersect within the licence area, creating a geological geometry comparable to the Pearana prospect.

“South Woodie Woodie is moving beyond a single-resource proposition toward a broader project-scale opportunity,” said Gary Lewis, CEO and Director of AE Fuels. “The recent gravity results gave us a focused pathway to test Pearana and Pothole, and the grant of E46/1580 now extends our exploration footprint immediately west of those prospects.”

“Our objective is to test the broader resource potential of South Woodie Woodie while advancing the downstream pathway toward high-purity manganese products for allied and U.S.-aligned supply chains.”
— Gary Lewis, CEO and Director

The land acquisition complements earlier technical work at the project. AE Fuels previously demonstrated a beneficiation pathway through continuous mini-pilot testwork with Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, producing battery-grade high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate crystals.

The company plans to integrate E46/1580 into its regional exploration strategy through geological data review, field reconnaissance, and target validation before determining further geophysics and drill requirements.

Read the full announcement: AE Fuels Expands South Woodie Woodie Manganese Footprint with Grant of Strategic Tenement