The maiden RC drilling campaign at Lithium Australia and Charger Metals’ Lake Johnson joint venture project in the Goldfields-Esperance region has enjoyed immediate success with the drill bit. The company says the campaign intersected numerous spodumene-bearing stacked pegmatites between 1 and 5 metres wide within a broad 50m zone that remains open at each end and depth.
Field observations include spodumene in 15 of the 17 holes completed.
Spodumene is regarded as an important source of lithium and is known to host high-grade concentrations of up to 8 per cent lithium oxide.
Lake Johnson is about 450km east of Perth and the joint venture project contains multiple lithium systems, including the Medcalf prospect.
Fieldwork previously identified a spodumene-pegmatite swarm in an area 800m long within a 300m-wide corridor at Medcalf and a program comprising up to 40 drill holes was drawn up. The maiden campaign carried out earlier this month completed 17 holes for 2,669 metres. Drilling has now halted and will recommence early next year.
The pegmatites intersected have a strike direction of north-west to south-east and dip at a moderate angle towards the south-west.
Lithium prospects are thought to occur within a 50km long corridor along the southern and western margin of the Lake Johnston granite batholith. Besides the Medcalf spodumene prospect, other areas of interest include the Mount Day lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite field that is prospective for lithium and tantalum minerals.
Lake Johnston also enjoys some nearology in its Tier 1 mining jurisdiction. About 70km to its west sits the Earl Grey lithium project hosting 189 million tonnes at 1.2 per cent lithium oxide and owned by subsidiaries of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile and Wesfarmers.
With its previously reported strong soil anomalies and rock chips giving up between 1.51 per cent and 7.15 per cent lithium oxide, Medcalf’s initial findings from the drilling campaign are not surprising. However, Charger cautions that though encouraging, no quantitative or qualitative assessments of mineralisation are possible at this stage. Also, widths reported are downhole and no estimate of true width is given.
Lithium Australia has recently been transitioning from minerals exploration to concentrate more on recycling technologies and lithium processing. That pivot culminated in the company requesting to be reclassified earlier this month on the ASX as a materials entity, not one focused on mining exploration.
In another development this month it announced it has agreed to sell its remaining 20 per cent stake in the Greenbushes South lithium project to Galan Resources.
However, Lithium Australia has kept a stake in a couple of exploration projects.
In July this year, Charger exercised its option to acquire a 70 per cent interest in Lithium Australia's Coates, Bynoe and Lake Johnston projects. As a result of the cash and script deal, Lithium Australia retained a 30 per cent free carried interest in those projects and also became the major shareholder in Charger Metals
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
