Reach Resources says it has seen multiple thick, stacked pegmatites in reverse-circulation (RC) cuttings within the same rock package that hosts Delta Lithium’s Malinda and Jamesons prospects to the east and west.
The company says it has now completed 57 RC holes for 5282m at its 100 per cent-owned Morrissey Hill lithium project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, with the majority intersecting pegmatites across the Morrissey Hill, Peggy Sue and Bonzer targets. Assays are due back early next year.
The pegmatites are hosted in a mixed package of older country rocks known as the “Leake Springs Metamorphics”, which were previously unidentified at Morrissey Hill. About 8km along strike to the east of Morrisey Hill, Delta has nailed a host of impressive lithium drill hits in the Leake Springs Metamorphics, extending to about 350m depth in a pegmatite package about 1.6km long and more than 1km wide at its Malinda deposit.
Drill hits from Malinda are as high as 35.2m at 1 per cent lithium oxide from a shallow depth of 5m, 33m at 1.9 per cent from 218m, 30m at 1.2 per cent from 291m, 19m at 1.6 per cent from 190m, 29m at 1.39 per cent from 121m and 35.2m at 1 per cent from 5m. Delta has said it plans to release a maiden mineral resource estimate for Malinda before the end of the year.
At the Jamesons prospect, about 20km to the west of Malinda, Delta has rock chips going 4.2 per cent lithium oxide within spodumene, which was logged at between 20 and 40 per cent abundance and is also interpreted to be part of the Leake Springs Metamorphics.
Reach Resources chief executive officer Jeremy Bower said: “Confirming an extension to the Leake Springs package is a major breakthrough in advancing the potential and scale of the opportunity at Morrissey Hill. This sequence of rocks is known to be far more favourable for pegmatite fractionation and the development of significant lithium mineralisation. The conditions the team are working in are extreme and yet they have not only completed another technically brilliant drill campaign, but also continued to identify and map new pegmatite targets to add to the huge potential at Morrissey Hill.”
The company intersected pegmatites during its maiden phase-one drilling effort at the Bonzer prospect within the Morrissey Hill project earlier this year, with most holes intersecting the rock type that has been known to host lithium within spodumene mineralisation in the area. The holes returned pegmatite thicknesses of up to 30m.
Assays from the first 4500m of phase-one drilling at Bonzer suggest the holes hit a halo of lower-grade mineralisation with encouraging geochemistry, giving Reach a confidence boost ahead doubling down on the area with its phase-two drilling plan.
Phase-one drilling tested only a 500m central section of a more than 2km strike length at Bonzer. It was defined by rock-chip sample assays revealed to the market in May that were up to 2.3 per cent, 1.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent lithium oxide.
The company says assays from Bonzer drilling did not reflect its high-grade rock chips, with the best lithium oxide hits being 14m at 0.13 per cent from surface including 8m at 0.2 per cent, 18m at 0.14 per cent from 34m downhole including 10m at 0.18 per cent and a 2m lense going 0.32 per cent.
Management said the key technical takeaway from the assays is that the Bonzer geochemical signature confirms the pegmatites are highly-fractionated when the geochemistry is plotted on magnesium-lithium ratio charts. Several results sat within the spodumene-bearing pegmatite zone.
Reach remains confident the thick, visually-identified pegmatites seen during phase-two drilling at Morrissey Hill will hold up under assay. If it does, it may be into the core of a strike-extensive, lithium-enriched system to rival its notable neighbours.
The company say it plans to be back drilling at Morrissey Hill in March or April next year following the Christmas break.
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By Andrew Duffy
