Chariot Corporation has hit the ground running at its Black Mountain lithium project in Wyoming, with the first three holes drilled delivering initial hard rock results peaking at 3.09 per cent lithium oxide.
The company says all three holes intersected high-grade spodumene mineralisation, confirming the potential of the lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite swarms at the United States-based project.
Assay highlights show a 15.48m intercept grading 1.12 per cent lithium oxide and 79 parts per million tantalum oxide from just 2.74m including 4.27m going 2.46 per cent lithium oxide and 128ppm tantalum oxide from 9.94m.
Results from the second hole returned a 14.33m hit reading 0.84 per cent lithium oxide and 61ppm tantalum oxide from 1.83m including 2.29m at the peak grade of 3.09 per cent lithium oxide and 138ppm tantalum oxide from 10.67m.
The third hole also revealed positive results, with an 18.81m intercept going 0.85 per cent lithium oxide and 98ppm tantalum oxide from 45.26m including 5.79m going 1.08 per cent lithium oxide and 105ppm tantalum oxide from 47.55m.
While its maiden diamond campaign at Black Mountain continues, Chariot has already completed eight holes, with assay results for the remaining five pending and expected to be announced by April.
In addition to the impressive initial lithium and tantalum results, management is optimistic it may have intersected the peripheral portion of a potentially bigger base metal mineral system, with selected intervals grading up to 0.6 per cent copper, 1 per cent zinc and 15.4 per cent lead.
Chariot Corporation managing director Shanthar Pathmanathan said: "We wanted to look under the covers in the middle of winter, so we drilled a few shallow holes under the outcropping pegmatites and sure enough, they continue at depth. We have a major lithium discovery on our hands. It's all spodumene (no petalite or lepidolite), coarse grained spodumene – a very real lithium system.”
Pathmanathan also said, more importantly, the company has made the first lithium discovery in Wyoming. He said that while the base metals find was a bonus, management would stay focussed on lithium as it believed the current market downturn for the silvery-white metal was just an “aberration.”
Previous sampling at Black Mountain returned a peak result of 6.68 per cent lithium oxide. Eight of the samples returned assays of more than 4 per cent lithium oxide, while the average across all 22 samples collected from the outcropping pegmatites came in at 2.16 per cent lithium oxide. Additional highlights include samples grading 5.24 per cent and 5.19 per cent lithium oxide.
However, Chariot is not just looking for hard-rock lithium in the US and is also part of the rush to pick up viable claystone-based lithium resources that are somewhat cheaper to mine and enable company’s to maintain much lower grades. Its clay-based lithium project known as Resurgent straddles the US States of Nevada and Oregon and already boasts some respectable clay grades from sampling.
Resurgent sits within the McDermitt Caldera that also hosts two of the biggest lithium resources discovered in the US. The operation has been split into two project areas – Resurgent North in Oregon and Resurgent East in Nevada.
Resurgent North is next to Jindalee Resources’ McDermitt project that has a mineral resource of 21.5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at 1000ppm lithium, while Resurgent East hosts the same sediment as Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass deposit, which features a mineral resource of 19.1 million tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent at 1334ppm lithium.
With the targeted hard rock lithium system at Black Mountain intersected in multiple holes already during its winter campaign, management says it plans to return to the project during the North American summer for a 5000m-to-10,000m drill campaign to get a better handle on the resource potential.
It is still early days for Chariot at its impressive Wyoming-based operation, but initial results already show the company is well on track to potentially become a major player on the US lithium scene.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Michael Philipps
