Horizon Minerals has set off on a lithium hunt through its gold-bearing Western Australian tenements after generating new exploration targets in the Goldfields and near the world-renowned Greenbushes project in the State’s South West region.
The company says it has been encouraged by its results to date, but more work is now planned as it looks to broaden its operations.
Horizon says a review of previous exploration results from its Eastern Goldfields projects has highlighted several prospective areas for lithium mineralisation across 14km of strike at Yarmany East, 50km north-west of Coolgardie and near its Golden Ridge gold deposit, about 22km south-east of Kalgoorlie.
Additionally, the company’s data reviews have turned up two new lithium prospects in the greater Boorara/Kanowna South area, about 20km south-east of Kalgoorlie and says the information requires following up.
Horizon has also re-examined its exploration tenure in the Bridgetown-Greenbushes area and believes it shows lithium promise. Centred about 16km south of the massive Greenbushes lithium-tin-tantalite pegmatite, there is clearly reason for optimism.
Management says it has received several “unsolicited inbound inquiries” in relation to its lithium rights and has appointed Perth-based investment and advisory house Argonaut PCF to help map out its strategic options.
Horizon Minerals chief executive officer Grant Haywood said: “Our large landholding in the Goldfields stretches from the west to the south-east of Kalgoorlie and is prospective for a range of minerals. Our focus remains on the significant gold endowment, but there is a growing understanding of the lithium potential within the region. We are planning to test the new prospects next year and will also consider potential strategic options for our emerging lithium assets.”
At Yarmany East, Horizon’s reconnaissance soil-gold and auger multi-element sampling in 2021 and last year defined a 14km-long, 100m-to-300m-wide corridor of spot values of 118 parts per million lithium, 13.5ppm caesium and up to 197ppm rubidium in three small, but distinct zones just east of and parallel to the north-west-striking Reptile shear.
The Big Red shear is 5km to the east of the Reptile shear and shares its orientation. Horizon’s sampling has identified meaningful gold hits between 1.01 grams per tonne and 1.82g/t gold in the south-east of the Yarmany East licence.
The company has also reported that two lines of regional auger sampling tagged a low-order, but distinct 3km-long lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) trend, with maximum responses of 1.73ppm niobium, 139ppm rubidium, 7.34ppm caesium, 0.012ppm tantalum and 3.32ppm tin.
The overall values associated with the Big Red shear trend are lower than those near the Reptile shear, but the company says it plans to undertake further work in the area to resolve the trends, including further examination of drill chips from previous gold reconnaissance.
At Snake Hill in the greater Boorara area, south of Kalgoorlie, Horizon’s review of air-core (AC) drilling by its joint venture (JV) partner Metal Hawk – which was chasing nickel two years ago as part of the Berehaven nickel project – turned up one hole that intercepted 11m at a grade of 384ppm lithium and 5.2 per cent manganese from 25m.
Horizon’s resampling produced a 4m intercept running 619ppm lithium, 0.7 per cent cobalt, 0.17 per cent copper, 8.9 per cent manganese, 0.29 per cent nickel and 245ppm scandium from 30m depth. While the significance of the results was initially discounted, Horizon recently acquired magnetic data which extended to the adjacent Golden Ridge and Snake Hill areas and showed the mineralisation may relate to a primary north/north-west structure parallel to the lithium trend.
Management says anomalous granite-related pathfinders occur in the AC samples, south of the lithium occurrences. It is now considering the possibility that the pathfinders may relate to a deeper or buried granitic intrusive. The nearest outcropping granite is 8km to the east near its Cannon mine.
At Bridgetown, Horizon has undertaken reconnaissance rock-chip and soil sampling on its granted licences, with an initial field inspection revealing weathered pegmatites on and near its tenements. While no sampling results are to hand, management says it is encouraged by its initial observations.
It is understandable why the company has joined the madding lithium crowd given the recent impact the silvery-white metal has had on markets across the globe. And with some of its ground near the giant Greenbushes pegmatite that has a resource of 360 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.54 per cent lithium oxide and 5.5 million tonnes of contained lithium oxide, that understanding becomes even more clear.
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By Doug Bright
