Lion Selection Group Limited (ASX:LSX) has announced a commitment to invest a further $1.6 million in Plutonic Limited, an unlisted gold and copper exploration company. Lion will fully subscribe to its 41% entitlement in Plutonic’s $4 million entitlement issue, priced at 12 cents per share. Plutonic, which focuses on two district-scale Australian projects, will allocate this capital towards its inaugural drill testing in 2026 at the Champion project in the Northern Territory. This exploration aims to evaluate a previously unrecognised and potentially large copper-gold district.
Plutonic’s Champion project was established based on an interpretation of a tectonic setting favourable for intrusion-driven systems. Field work has identified a significant surface footprint of copper and gold anomalism, with rock chip assays up to 0.3% copper and 2.23g/t gold, interpreted as indicative of a porphyry-epithermal driven system. The planned 2026 drilling represents the first holes to test four key prospects within the project’s 6,500 square kilometre tenure, seeking to confirm geology and potential metal abundance. Separately, Plutonic plans surface geophysics for its Georgetown project in Northern Queensland to delineate shallow epithermal gold targets.
This latest commitment brings Lion’s total investment in Plutonic to $4.8 million since becoming a shareholder in 2022. The 12 cents per share issue price will trigger a revaluation of Lion’s 41% holding, expected to be reflected in its Net Tangible Assets (NTA) upon the entitlement issue’s successful close by 1 June 2026. If fully subscribed, Lion’s Plutonic shareholding is projected to be valued at approximately $7.4 million, against a cumulative investment of $6.4 million. Lion Managing Director Hedley Widdup commented on Champion’s potential: “The outcome of a discovery could be significant both in terms of value and for mineral exploration in Australia.”
