All your lithium news, Wednesday October 5.
~$9.23b market cap company ,Allkem (ASX:AKE) has boots on the ground at its 13.3Mt Mt Cattlin spodumene operation in Western Australia’s Great Southern region near Ravensthorpe, where a three-phase drilling program is underway to grow resources.
Since September 14, around 81 holes have been drilled for a total 19,1777m with previous intersections including hits of up to 12m at 2.46% Li2O and 15m at 1.91% Li2O.
Phase 1 and 2 drilling at 2NW is on target for completion by the end of October and a consultant has been engaged to carry out a study to convert the mineral resources to ore reserves for scheduling, mine planning and detailed pit design. Phase 3, due to kick off soon, will test targets outside the mining area.
Meanwhile, Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) — which is ramping up to steady state production at Finniss — has hit high-grade spodumene in multiple holes at BP33 with intersections including 72.4m at 1.56% Li2O and 22m at 1.60% Li2O.
The company says these new spodumene intersections are more than 400m outside of the current mineral resource and are expected to deliver substantial extensions.
After raising $100m earlier this week, CXO is well placed to advance available growth opportunities at Finniss, including accelerated resource definition, extensional and exploration drilling to bring forward the development of the proposed BP33 underground mine by investment in early works.
60 lithium companies finished in the green, 47 fell flat and 24 tumbled into the red zone.
A PFS has kicked off at the Moblan Lithium Project (Sayona 60%; SOQUEM 40%) in northern Québec.
The company has engaged InnovExplo to conduct the study, targeting completion by May 2023 before a definitive feasibility study starts in September 2023.
This PFS will spur the development of a new northern hub for the emerging lithium producer, SYA managing director Brett Lynch says.
“Since acquiring Moblan in October 2021, Sayona has worked to rapidly develop this project with an extensive drilling program targeting a major expansion of our lithium resource in an area already hosting world-scale mines,” he explains.
“This study should further enhance our confidence.”
Rio Tinto Exploration (RTX) has elected to exercise its option to farm-in to the northern Rover Project exploration licence (E57/1134) in Western Australia’s central Yilgarn region where it has uncovered “a sub-cropping weathered pegmatite unit that may be prospective for lithium (spodumene) and tantalum mineralisation.”
TSC entered a binding term sheet with RTX in March 2022, with RTX paying an initial A$25,000 up front for an exclusive initial six-month option to explore North Rover for non-gold minerals.
RTX has exercised its option to earn an 80% Joint Venture interest in the non-gold mineral rights by sole funding $5m of non-gold exploration and plans to conduct an initial drill program of 500-1000m to investigate the interpreted pegmatite unit in early 2023.
Approval has been from the USA Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its western Resource expansion drilling program at the Paradox Lithium Project in Utah, USA.
The BLM has approved Anson’s Plan of Operation (POO) to re-enter and sample the Sunburst 1 and Mineral Canyon Fed 1-3 wells, marking a significant step in the company’s resource expansion program.
This also allows for the commencement of its Western resource expansion strategy where Anson plans to conduct a re-entry program to convert the existing inferred resource and exploration target to a combined indicated and inferred resource.
It is proposed that some of the area located west of the targeted Sunburst and Mineral Canyon wells will be included in a further resource update when the program at Sunburst and Mineral Canyon is completed.
Winsome has almost completed stripping of the main ore body at Cancet with samples showing spodumene crystals, providing good indications of the structural geology.
WR1 says the presence of spodumene crystals within pegmatite does not necessarily equate to lithium mineralisation until confirmed by chemical assay.
“It is not possible to estimate the percentage of lithium mineralisation by visual estimates and this will be determined by the laboratory results which will be reported in full in a future report,” the company highlights.
“However, the presence of these crystals provides more specific guidance on targets for the upcoming drill campaign, on track to commence in the next week.”
Latin has made a new lithium discovery some 500m west of the Colina prospect within the wider Salinas Lithium Project in Brazil’s pro-mining Minas Gerais district.
With hits up to 18.71m at 1.32% Li2O, 1.78m at 1.33% Li2O, and 1.67m at 1.36% Li2O, LRS says MULTIPLE, high-grade lithium bearing pegmatites have been confirmed.
“The significance of these latest results from hole SADD0033 cannot be understated,” LRS exploration manager Tony Greenaway says.
“They confirm that we have a second zone of high-grade lithium bearing pegmatite… which is open in all directions, including along strike to the north and south.”
Significant intersections of highly conductive brines have been encountered in the first drill hole at Lithium Energy’s flagship Solaroz Lithium Brine Project, located in Argentina in the heart of South America’s world renowned Lithium Triangle.
The first hole of a planned 10 hole, 5,000 metre initial drilling programme, is located roughly 10kms from Allkem’s Olaroz Lithium Facility production bore field and less than ~3km from the Maria Victoria concession, which was recently acquired by Allkem as a ‘strategic lithium tenement.
Field tests at SOZDD001 indicate brines were encountered from ~65m to ~170m within an ‘upper aquifer’ and previous geophysics indicate further significant zones of conductive brines are expected as drilling progresses through to a ‘lower aquifer’ from current drill levels to a target drill depth of 300m.
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