US-focussed lithium clay explorer Hawkstone Mining has now defined high-grade lithium clay mineralisation over 800 metres at its emerging Big Sandy project, located in western Arizona.
Notably, the ore system remains open both to the north and the west.
The latest batch of assay results from the ongoing resource development diamond drilling program on-site has provided further thick, extensive and consistent intersections, including 12 metres grading 2,123 parts per million, or “ppm”, lithium from 37m down-hole and 23m @ 1,967 ppm lithium from 51m down-hole, in the same vertical drill hole.
Other new intercepts were 32m @ 1,798 ppm lithium from 10m down-hole and 39m @ 2,015 ppm lithium from 23m down-hole in separate drill holes.
Hawkstone said it has now completed 20 of its planned 37-hole program over the Northern Mineralised Zone at Big Sandy, which is being undertaken to facilitate the estimation of a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource for the project.
The company has also recently received firm commitments for a heavily oversubscribed placement of 120 million shares priced at 2 cents a share to raise $2.4m
Proceeds from the placement will be used primarily to accelerate the exploration and development activities at Big Sandy, including the all-important definitive metallurgical test work programs that should provide the optimal processing flowsheet to liberate the lithium from the mineralised clays.
Recent preliminary metallurgical test work programs showed that simple acid leaching extracted 95% of the contained lithium from the Big Sandy ores in just 7 hours, which is an impressive result.
Regarding the placement, Managing Director Paul Lloyd noted: “Recent exploration has highlighted the potential of the Big Sandy Project, with diamond drilling intersecting areas of wide, shallow high-grade lithium mineralisation.”
“To ensure we are well-funded for further drilling and metallurgical test work, the company has undertaken a small financing which was well supported by new and existing shareholders, with demand well in excess of $2.4 million.”
“With the recent appointment of special advisor Dr David Deak (formerly of Tesla Inc. and Lithium Americas Corp.) and Non-Executive Chairman Mr Barnaby Egerton-Warburton (formerly of ioneer Ltd), the successful placement marks the beginning of an exciting period of activity … including the expected compilation of a maiden JORC compliant resource at (the) Big Sandy Project in the coming months.”
By Matt Birney
