ASX-listed junior explorer Aruma Resources is on the cusp of a maiden reverse circulation drill program at its Mt Deans lithium project about 10km south of Norseman in Western Australia. The company says it plans to put down 12 RC holes for an aggregate drilling coverage of about 1,000m starting next month, following the recent completion of a requisite comprehensive flora and fauna survey.
Aruma’s 1.44-square-kilometre project area – in the Mt Deans pegmatite field, which is part of the Eastern Goldfields – lies within south-east WA’s “lithium corridor”, which hosts multiple significant hard-rock lithium projects.
Mt Deans is interpreted by the company to occur within the same host rocks and structures as the region’s very successful Mt Marion lithium mine owned by Mineral Resources.
Perth-based Aruma says Mt Deans also shares its geological setting with Alliance Mineral Assets’ Bald Hill lithium mine and Liontown Resources’ Buldania lithium project.
Aruma registered a clutch of encouraging results from rock chip sampling work it carried out at the project earlier this year, with lithium oxide values averaging a respectable 1.4 per cent and tantalum values averaging 275 parts per million.
Management says it sees Mt Deans as being prospective for lithium minerals, tantalum and rare earth element minerals.
The company’s initial round of drilling will vector in on an interpreted “cauldron” or pegmatite chamber at Mt Deans.
Aruma says prior exploration has identified spodumene-bearing pegmatites at the Mt Deans project over a strike length of one kilometre.
The wider Mt Deans pegmatite field covers an area of 6 kilometres north to south and 4km east to west and comprises multiple individual pegmatite sheets and lenses.
It is Archaean in age and hosted in the north-south trending Dundas Hill greenstone belt.
According to the company, the Mt Deans district takes in a swarm of 71 recognised pegmatites spanning about 4.5km by 1.5km trending north-north-west and ranging from 500 metres to 2km in length between 0.3m and 7.5m in thickness.
They have an upper portion quartz-poor, feldspar-rich marginal layer, where most of the cassiterite and tantalum is lodged.
Aruma says it will investigate the potential for Mt Deans to harbour direct shipping lithium ores given the pegmatites in the project area are thought to be deeper and closer to a main cauldron or chamber that may host spodumene-rich material, potentially suitable for direct shipping.
The company says a prime example of this style of deposit is Liontown’s Buldania and Kathleen Valley lithium deposits, where finger-like thin, steep pegmatites coalesce into a thick spodumene zone at shallow depth.
Situated adjacent to the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway and rail infrastructure that provides direct access to the Port of Esperance rail hub, Mt Deans would make an ideal setting for a mine if Aruma can prove it up.
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