Octava Minerals has launched a new soil-sampling program to follow up three priority targets defined by a recent hyperspectral survey within its Talga project near Marble Bar in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
In particular, the company says the survey identified several lobes within the granite around its Nimerry prospect that show spectral similarities to the signatures from Global Lithium Resources' Archer deposit that is just 10km to the south. That project has a current inferred resource of 10.5 million tonnes at 1.0 percent lithium oxide.
While Octava says its survey identified several additional exploration targets, its current soil sampling objectives are to test the three priority target areas to progress them to drilling where possible. The company will sample and analyse for a range of elements pivotal to its key focus on the lithium potential within the tenements and also evaluate the prospectivity for gold and base metals.
The airborne hyperspectral survey uses remote sensing systems to assist with exploration target identification by measuring the detailed spectral radiance of the Earth’s surface to help map surface rocks and the products of their weathering and alteration.
While the technique can not directly identify potentially economic mineralisation, many rock-forming minerals show unique spectral signatures distinguishing areas of significance that are invisible to the naked eye, or in normal photographic or satellite imagery.
The Talga project covers an Archean-granite and greenstone complex of various ages that Octava considers prospective for hard-rock lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites known to be associated with granitic intrusions and in addition, for lode gold-style mineralisation and volcanogenic massive sulfide-type deposits.
Of several areas identified by Octava’s remote sensing survey, three priority targets near Doolena, Razorback and at Nimerry East emerged as favourable for soil sampling to assess their geochemical signatures and prospectivity and to verify the results. The targets lie respectively in the north-west, central north and the south-east of the tenement group.
Nimerry is less than 5km south-west of Pinnacle Well, where pegmatite intersected in the company’s maiden drilling program was one of several identified at Talga with lithium chemistry, supporting the wider lithium potential at the project.
Management says further work will consist of ongoing interpretation of its hyperspectral datasets and soil sampling as indicated from the remote sensing and other results. It will also include rock-chip sampling of selected outcrop and detailed exploration and follow-up drilling of pegmatite outcrops at Pinnacle Well and Nimerry.
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By Doug Bright
