Aruma Resources has received impressive assay results from its recent drill program at the company’s Mt Deans project near Kalgoorlie with 12 intercepts grading more than 1.5 per cent lithium-rubidium.
The latest results saw the company’s share price jump more than 50 per cent during intraday trading from a close of 5.3 cents last night to a high of 8.2 cents on the highest daily trading volumes in nearly a year.
Assay highlights include an impressive 8m intercept going 1.89 per cent lithium-rubidium from 26m in addition to 7m at 1.6 per cent lithium-rubidium from 26m. Further significant results showed a 5m hit recording 1.56 per cent lithium-rubidium from 55m and another 5m section reading 1.51 per cent lithium-rubidium from 55m in another hole.
The recent assays come from the company’s 21-hole campaign that intersected a prospective pegmatite swarm over a 1500m strike length where previous drilling returned grades up to 1.14 per cent lithium and 1.05 per cent rubidium.
Aruma also re-assayed seven historical holes that also returned impressive results including a 5m hit going 1.98 per cent lithium-rubidium from 4m in addition to 6m at 1.52 per cent lithium-rubidium from 12m. The second hole also recorded a 1m intercept at a whopping 2.63 per cent lithium-rubidium from 23m. The re-assayed holes were from drilling completed by Tantalum Australia in 2002.
The company says the assay results also returned significant levels of additional minerals including high potassium values of up to 3.6 per cent, with up to 0.6 per cent caesium and between 600 and 700 parts per million tin-tantalum.
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.
Mt Deans is approximately 170km south of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and about 10km south of the mining town of Norseman.
Aruma says based on the recent drilling results it may look to identify pegmatites with high-grade lithium-rubidium-caesium-potassium ore that could be concentrated using a simple flotation/gravity circuit to produce lithium-potassium concentrate. The explorer believes this method could also produce rubidium and caesium by-products in addition to tin and tantalum gravity concentrates.
With high-grade and in-vouge lithium and rubidium already confirmed at Mt Deans alongside the prospect of other goodies in the mix, Aruma has stepped into the new year with a spring in its step and the market will be keenly awaiting what the future has in store.
Watch this space.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
