ASX-listed Lithium Australia has continued to intersect wide pegmatite intervals with lithium mineralisation from its first pass reverse circulation, or “RC”, drilling program at the Youanmi project near Sandstone in WA’s Murchison region.
Lithium lepidolite mineralisation has been recorded from 36 of the 37 holes drilled to date, 19 of which have reported mineralised intersections exceeding 5 metres in width.
Additionally, some of the pegmatite intercepts were located on drill sections where there was no related surface outcrop.
Drilling activity at Youanmi is anticipated to be completed within a fortnight.
The drill program results will then be used to assess the resource potential and geometry of the pegmatites while mineralisation characterisation and metallurgical testing will be carried out on the RC samples.
Managing Director Adrian Griffin said: "Our RC program continues to intersect good widths of lithium mineralisation in pegmatites at Youanmi. The lithium is hosted in lepidolite, which is ideally suited for processing using our proprietary SiLeach process.”
“This first-pass drill program is testing a lithium target with a strike of around 3km and I am eagerly awaiting the first batch of assay results before the end of the month."
Last year, the company signed an option to acquire the project from private exploration company Diversity Resources, which is also prospective for vanadium, over three contiguous exploration licences covering about 450 square kilometres.
Lithium Australia can acquire the project by issuing Diversity $3.1m in scrip and granting Diversity the greater of either a gross production royalty of 2%, or $1 per tonne of material mined and processed from the tenements.
Initial surface samples turned up lithium values peaking at 4.2% lithium oxide, which were also anomalous in caesium and tantalum, pointing to a potentially highly fractionated swarm of pegmatites in the region.
Lithium mineralisation at Youanmi is pegmatite-hosted, with lepidolite being the dominant lithium mineral located to date.
By Matt Birney
