Explorer St George Mining has moved quickly on the company’s discovery of high-grade lithium-bearing rock chip samples at its Mt Alexander project near Leonora, launching its first lithium-focused drill campaign at the project.
The 20-hole 2,000m program’s initial focus is Mt Alexander’s Jailbreak prospect where high-grade lithium in outcropping pegmatites has been confirmed by the rock chip assays.
In addition, a diamond rig is scheduled to arrive on site in the first week of November. Initially the rig is to test high-priority targets considered prospective for nickel as generated by recent electromagnetic and seismic surveys in the Manta prospect area and then to follow up lithium-bearing pegmatites that might be confirmed by RC drilling.
Management says the combined RC-diamond drilling is scheduled to continue throughout November with this phase to total about 3,500m.
It was less than two weeks ago that St George announced high-grade lithium had been confirmed in rock chip samples with assay results including 2.72 per cent lithium oxide, 756 parts per million caesium, 60ppm tantalum oxide and 11,530ppm rubidium and 1.97% lithium oxide, 715ppm caesium, 166ppm tantalum and 13,765ppm rubidium.
That announcement sent the company’s share price soaring more than 50 per cent and today’s news that drilling was underway also had a positive impact. St George popped more than 27 per cent above yesterday’s close of 5.1cents during intraday trading.
The geochemistry of its rock chip samples from the pegmatites at Mt Alexander indicated fertility for lithium, caesium and tanatalum.
St George said the scale and grades discovered in samples provided encouragement for the potential for a large lithium system. Moreover, the prospective pegmatites have been mapped over a wide area within a north-south corridor adjacent to the Copperfield Granite.
Red Dirt metals has announced significant lithium discoveries approximately 15km south of Mt Alexander and to the north of the project sits Liontown Resources’ large Kathleen Valley lithium deposit.
Other neighbours of Mt Alexander include several BHP nickel mines and IGO’s Cosmos nickel mine.
Jailbreak’s pegmatites occur in a zone extending 1.7km north-south and up to 1.4km east-west. The first phase of drilling will test a number of east-west trending pegmatite dykes within the zone that are interpreted as highly prospective for lithium mineralisation.
St George Mining Executive Chairman, John Prineas said: “This initial phase of drilling will provide St George with an opportunity to potentially make a Greenfields discovery within what is emerging as a significant lithium province.”
“Once the diamond rig arrives in coming weeks, we will incorporate the results from the RC drilling to prioritise diamond hole follow-ups – alongside testing some of our priority nickel targets. It promises to be an exciting end to 2022 for St George and our shareholders.”
The downhole depths of RC drill holes for lithium targets will range between 60m and 150m. Deeper holes at the lithium targets will be completed by the diamond rig.
Laboratory assays are expected to be progressively available within four to five weeks.
Mt Alexander is one of four projects in WA that St George holds in its portfolio. The others are Paterson, prospective for copper and gold, east of Port Hedland, Ajana, prospective for nickel, copper and PGEs, north of Geraldton and Broadview, south of Northam, where two large interpreted intrusions are prospective for nickel, copper and PGEs.
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By Matt Birney
