Reach Resources has identified more than 50 new pegmatites during fieldwork at its Morrissey Hill lithium project in WA’s emerging Gascoyne region, as drilling, rock-chip and soil sampling continues.
The company says it has mapped individual pegmatites extending up to 2km in strike length and up to 30m in width in the same sequence that hosts Delta Lithium's neighbouring Malinda deposit. Delta’s revered operation is about 8km along strike to the east and boasts lithium mineralisation from surface, extending to 350m depth.
Drill hits from Malinda are as high as 35.2m at 1 per cent lithium oxide from 5m, 33m at 1.9 per cent from 218m, 30m at 1.2 per cent from 291m, 19m at 1.6 per cent from 190m, 29m at 1.39 per cent from 121m and 35.2m at 1 per cent from 5 metres.
Significantly, Delta completed its first-pass metallurgical testing on Malinda pegmatites, indicating high-grade lithium oxide concentrates can be produced at high recoveries. Results from the testing include 6.3 per cent lithium oxide concentrate at 76.9 per cent recovery and a 6.4 per cent lithium oxide concentrate at a 60.6 per cent recovery rate.
Reach Resources chief executive officer Jeremy Bower said: “Our maiden drill program at Morrissey Hill has been extremely encouraging. Not only have we intersected significant pegmatite widths below surface and stacked down hole to ~400m, the extended time on site has also allowed the team to map some seriously good outcropping pegmatite targets right across the project area. Most importantly, these pegmatites are hosted within greenstones (mafic volcanics) and/or sediments of the Leake Springs Metamorphic package. These are the same rocks that host the lithium mineralisation at Delta Lithium’s Malinda Project right next door. Our new target areas are a significant development as they potentially extend our strike length at Morrissey Hill to over 10km across all the target areas. This 10km does not include the “blind” pegmatites that we know are on site, based on our intersections during the maiden drill campaign. The Future is within Reach.”
Drilling kicked-off at the Bonzer prospect within the Morrissey Hill project last month, with about 2500m of reverse-circulation (RC) hole and about 2000m of diamond hole planned. The company says all holes completed to date have intersected a swarm of thick pegmatites, including some at depth that do not outcrop at surface.
While the discovery of the pegmatite swarm highlights the potential of the area to host significant lithium mineralisation, Reach notes that the identification of pegmatites in any drilling does not immediately imply the presence of lithium or any other potentially economic mineralisation. That will be determined by laboratory analysis.
The Morrissey Hill project is made up of nine prospects – Swallowtail, Sunset Boulevard, Peggy Sue, Shorebreak, Morrisey Hill, Martin’s Reach, Malibu, Morning light and the flagship Bonzer deposit.
The company says Peggy Sue, Sunset Boulevard and Morrissey Hill have all had heritage surveys completed. Peggy Sue and Morrissey Hill have been cleared for drilling, as rock-chip and soil sampling continues across the areas.
The Martin’s Reach prospect will be the subject of further heritage surveys with traditional owners.
Management says the Morrissey Hill project area contains tantalising historical high-grade lithium, tantalum, rubidium, caesium, niobium results from rock-chip samples, including 1.32 per cent lithium oxide, 3.62 per cent tantalum pentoxide, 1936 parts per million rubidium, 2276ppm caesium and 1.55 per cent niobium pentoxide.
Last month, Reach announced assays from its own soil-sampling program at the Bonzer prospect, with results as high as 759ppm lithium oxide. More than 60per cent of the samples returned more than 100ppm lithium oxide.
The company says the soil-sampling results suggest a strong, coherent lithium anomaly defined by values of greater than 500ppm lithium oxide extends for more than 1.5km along strike and about 700m in width and remains open.
With visual observation of pegmatites in every hole drilled at Bonzer, Reach will be anxiously awaiting lab results, which are due early next month. The company says it is preparing for phase-two drilling to start later this year, pending regulatory approvals.
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By Andrew Duffy
