Lithium Universe has laid the foundation for a targeted assault with the drill bit at its Apollo lithium project in Quebec having completed soil sampling, airborne magnetic surveys and related fieldwork, with the rods expected to start turning early in the new year.
The neighbourhood has become somewhat of a lithium hotspot recently, where Lithium Universe will be hunting along a major east-west trending fault or shear corridor extending from its Apollo project to Winsome Resources’ Adina lithium project, about 60km to the east.
Notably, the Adina project has a total lithium mineralised strike trend of over 3km, with mineralisation remaining open to the east and west of reported intercepts. And in what could be interpreted as something of a promising portent for Lithium Universe, drilling at Adina has produced a number of eye-catching results, including 1.34 per cent lithium oxide over a massive 107.6m intercept from 2.3m to 109.9m. Winsome has also reported a maiden resource of 59 million tonnes at 1.12 per cent lithium oxide at Ardina.
Lithium Universe undertook the field work at its Apollo project in partnership with local Quebec firm Laurentia Exploration, which included 666km of mapping and sampling traverses, with 209 rock chip samples being collected over much of the company’s 240 square kilometre Apollo permit area.
Additionally, a total of 2,220 soil samples was taken on an intense north-west / south-east oriented, 300m-by-150m grid sampling program in the north-west and central parts of the Apollo project, focussed mainly on areas close to the Lac Rouget greenstone formation, the Vieux Comptoir intrusive, and other major identified structures.
Lithium Universe chairman Iggy Tan said: “The summer/fall program and laboratory analyses set the company up with a great interpretation and understanding of the geology of the Apollo lithium project. Our work has been methodical and systematic, which is what has been required to map out a drilling campaign in the new year.”
Field mapping and sampling was focussed on areas of strong potential highlighted in previous KorrAI satellite and airborne magnetic litho-structural interpretations, with the object of identifying big, late-stage granite intrusions, greenstone rocks, extensional fault structures and areas of high rock porosity.
According to Lithium Universe, these sorts of areas can often represent favourable rocks and concentration points for lithium-rich spodumene mineralisation and other geochemical pathfinders pointing to important zones for emplacement of late stage, lithium-caesium-tantalite (LCT) pegmatites.
The company says all field work and logistics were undertaken in partnership with Laurentia, and that operations were undertaken by helicopter on a fly-in-fly-out routine from Otish Camp, about 73km south-east of the Apollo project area.
Management says some potential targets have already been generated which might be incorporated into a maiden drilling program slated for next year. The first drilling targets appear to lie along the main shear corridor between Apollo and Adina and are defined by anomalous lithium, caesium, tantalum, beryllium, tin, niobium and tungsten anomalies and their trends.
Moreover, it says the lab results have enabled an updated geological interpretation for the Apollo project and have shed more light on key rock types and their extent across the Apollo permit area and on geophysically-interpreted features from its previous airborne magnetic survey.
The area encloses a large and intensely contorted greenstone mass over six kilometres long which extends beyond the eastern boundary of the permit, is surrounded by metasediments and is centred around a granitoid intrusive which includes pegmatites.
Lithium Universe believes it is well placed for success in the new year with good structural trends, favourable geology, encouraging LCT anomalism, known pegmatites at Apollo’s core and sits along-strike of proven lithium mineralisation at Adina.
Only time will tell.
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By Doug Bright
