Aruma fires up rig for second round in lithium hunt

Aruma Resources has kicked off a second phase drilling campaign of up to 1800m over 12 holes at the company’s Mt Deans lithium and rubidium project 120km south of Kalgoorlie in WA. The drill holes will pierce down to depths as low as 120m in a follow-up program to first phase drilling and recent rock chip sampling that returned high-grade lithium and rubidium results. Aruma anticipates its work to be completed in mid-October with results to be released in due course.

Initial indications from the first hole of the program indicate several pegmatites in the northern section of the project, a result which may warrant additional holes. High lepidolite content has been noted in the first holes and this is the target mineral for lithium and rubidium.

Aruma has secured a specialised drill rig for the second phase of drilling, enabling the holes to be drilled tangential to access tracks and minimise the disturbance of vegetation. The access tracks at the project run north to south and using its specialised rig, the explorer will drill holes aimed east to west as it looks to test the extent of a thick lithium and rubidium dyke intersected in its previous drilling efforts.

In May, the explorer ran a surface sampling program designed to test for strike extensions to a 1500m-long target zone and assist in refining targets for its second phase of drilling. Its surface investigation successfully raked in rock chips going up to 1.96 per cent lithium oxide and “very” high grades of rubidium running up to 1.42 per cent rubidium oxide.

This work followed on from exploration in April when Aruma tested its priority target at Mt Deans with an initial phase of drilling for 1156m across eight RC holes that delivered highly encouraging results including 1m at 1.14 per cent lithium oxide from 36m within a wider zone of 10m at 0.62 per cent lithium oxide and 0.57 per cent rubidium oxide from 22m. Notably, all of its drill holes intercepted pegmatites, supporting the presence of a mineralised system of at least 1500m long and open at both ends.

The project is interpreted to lie within a lithium corridor in south-eastern WA that contains ASX-listed Mineral Resources’ Mt Marion lithium mine of 72.9 million tonnes at 1.37 per cent lithium oxide and Liontown Resources’ Buldania resource of 15Mt at 1.0 per cent lithium oxide. The corridor also hosts the privately owned Bald Hill lithium mine of 26.5Mt at 1.0 per cent lithium oxide — held by Alliance Mineral Assets.

It has been a good week for Aruma with the lithium explorer’s shares up over 30 per cent to $0.073 since its close of $0.056 last Friday.

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