Australian explorer Gold Mountain has picked up lithium in soil samples over a 2.5km long zone at its new Salitre project in Brazil that it says could extend out to 8km in length. The anomalous zone also shows caesium, tantalum and tin and remains open to the north and south. Two nearby anomalies also require more sampling to resolve.
The anomalism is north-northeast trending and based on 855 geochemical samples on a 400m by 50m grid in the central and northern parts of its Salitre tenements in Brazil.
The company says the main part of the defined 2.5km lithium anomalism was defined by geochemical contours within a lower cut-off grade of 60ppm lithium.
Many lithium discoveries are book-ended by caesium and tantalum within a pegmatite setting (LCT pegmatites) and the company says some zones show members of the lucrative metal triad to be more strongly represented. The higher grade zonation can assist with homing in on key parts of the pegmatites.
Management says future infill sampling on a 100m line spacing and detailed mapping of float and outcrop is being planned for anomalous parts of the soil grid to refine mapping, strike definition and targets for a proposed RC drilling campaign to test the geochemistry of fresh pegmatites below the weathering zone.
Soil sampling reported earlier this month at Salitre South, about 5km south-southwest of Salitre, also produced coherent anomalous results up to 134.5ppm lithium which appear to be coincident with or parallel to mapped pegmatites.
At least two lithium-bearing pegmatite zones have been interpreted in the small area sampled which measures about 500m by 500m.
Following the initial program at Salinas South, the company says a second round of sampling was undertaken to check on interesting observations and to assess sampling considerations.
It says small to moderate scale pegmatites were noted in artisanal workings in the weathered zone, in small open cuts and in one adit that was created for the purposes of seeking gemstones in thin pegmatites.
Gold Mountain’s recent acquisition of a 75 per cent share in a package of highly prospective lithium exploration licences in the “Salinas II” project area in eastern Brazil helps give it the biggest footprint of any Australian explorer in the region as it looks to transform itself from gold explorer to serious lithium player.
Management expects infill soil sampling and confirmatory RC drilling should expand its understanding of the region which, despite the apparent abundance of LCT pegmatites, has never been sampled and analysed for lithium by previous explorers.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
