Askari Metals has highlighted three significant mineralised corridors of anomalous lithium across a strike length of 4.6km following a successful sampling program at its Hillside project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
The company says a total of 216 rock samples were collected during two separate phases of work, with peak results of 350 parts per million lithium and 170ppm lithium. Both samples were collected from a zone dubbed
“Area Three”, with a strike length of 1.6km.
Two previous reconnaissance field exploration sampling programs were completed at Hillside in November last year following a previous campaign in June. They resulted in the identification of several potentially spodumene-bearing lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites.
Askari collected soil samples from two additional zones, named Area One and Area Two, which also recorded consistent anomalous results. Grades ranged between 76ppm and 41ppm lithium in 25 samples that will be used to highlight potential target areas in the zones. Area One has a strike length of 2.2km, while Area Two has a mineralised corridor of 800m.
The company believes the lithium levels in the soil samples are comparable to, or better than those in the rock sample assays.
Askari Metals vice president exploration and geology Johan Lambrechts said: “The results show the zone of lithium mineralisation in Area One covers a strike length of 2.2km whilst at Area Two and Area Three, the lithium mineralised corridor strikes 800m and 1.6km respectively. Rock and soil samples were collected from a wide area across the project and these results have identified areas where we can focus our follow-up work phases.”
Management says Hillside is within the “Tambourah Lithium District”, along strike and adjacent to ASX-listed Eastern Resources’ Trigg Hill and East Curlew projects, where exploration has identified extensive pegmatites that have been drilled-tested. It believes the pegmatites can be followed along strike into Hillside.
The site includes two granted tenements considered prospective for lithium, tin and tantalum mineralisation, covering 60 square kilometres.
Askari picked up the project after purchasing the operation’s previous owner, Greenstone Lithium, in June. The deal took the company’s total landholding in the Pilbara region to 2300sq km. The site sits less than 4km from Trek Metals’ Tambourah North lithium project, where spodumene has recently been discovered in drilling and rock sampling.
The latest results at Hillside will feed into further geochemical surveys, which, when combined with upcoming satellite imagery, will provide Askari with high-confidence targets for planned air-core (AC) and reverse-circulation (RC) drilling campaigns.
Earlier this month, the company completed a follow-up probe to test the copper-nickel potential indicated by rock sampling results at its promising Callawa project, about 90km north-east of Marble Bar. After running an 18sq-km drone magnetics survey last year, it has now finished an 864-sample auger program to test rock-sample geochemistry that included anomalous copper, silver, nickel and chromium.
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