Reach Resources’ imminent maiden drill campaign at its Bonzer pegmatite field in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region now has new intrigue attached after the company unveiled soil samples going as high as 759 parts per million lithium oxide.
Management also says more than 60 per cent of its 833 soil sample assays showed lithium oxide readings of more than 100ppm. The assays came in at an average of about 128ppm lithium oxide, which it says suggests a strong, coherent lithium anomaly – with values of between 350ppm and 759ppm –extending more than 1.5km along strike and 700m in width and remaining open.
The results come on the back of assays from a series of rock chips collected during a helicopter-supported reconnaissance mission in May. It targeted outcropping lithium-bearing pegmatites of the spodumene-petalite
subtype at Bonzer, with the best result going 2.3 per cent lithium oxide, in addition to others at 1.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent.
To follow-up on the recent soil-sampling success, Reach has planned its first Bonzer drill program to include up to 10 reverse-circulation (RC) holes to as deep as 300m and up to another 10 diamond core holes to similar depths for a total of about 4500m of drilling. The program, which is set to begin next week, is designed to assess grade, size and scale of the mapped pegmatites and test for the presence of pegmatite bodies at depth.
Reach Resources chief executive officer Jeremy Bower said: “The first round of assay results received from our soil sampling program has defined multiple high-priority targets at the Bonzer Pegmatite Field at Morrissey Hill. The entire grid sampled across the Bonzer pegmatite field has literally lit up with lithium. The presence of lithium in soils at these extremely high levels is another piece of critical data we are using to refine our high-priority drill targets. Drillers remain on track to mobilise to site next week and we look forward to providing more soil assay results in the areas surrounding the Bonzer Pegmatite Field as they are received. The Future is within Reach.”
The Bonzer prospect sits within Reach’s 100 per cent-owned Morrissey Hill operation, which is one of three projects making up the company’s wider Yinnetharra lithium play, about 180km east of Carnarvon and within WA’s Gascoyne Province.
The Morrissey Hill project area stretches through about 9km of north-west/south-east trending lithium-bearing strike and sits amid hotly-contested ground directly between permits belonging to Delta Lithium and Minerals 260.
In June this year, Delta (formerly Red Dirt Metals) revealed it was onto six pegmatites from surface to about 350m at its Malinda prospect, with assays coming back as high as 33m at 1.9 per cent lithium oxide from 218m and 19m at 1.6 per cent from 190m. Delta’s ground is about 5km along strike from Reach’s permit and had its lithium hits within the same geological unit that the latter will soon be chasing with the drillbit.
Adjoining Reach’s ground to the south, Minerals 260 has just completed a soil-sampling program at its Aston project area, which returned samples averaging 125ppm lithium oxide, with a maximum value of 232ppm.
Reach is funding its upcoming drilling campaign via a successful $4 million capital raise revealed earlier this month. The strategic placement saw the issue of 400 million new shares at an issue price of $0.01 per share, each with a 1:3 free attaching unlisted option, exercisable at $0.01 and expiring on August 4 in 2025.
The company says it has also obtained all of the necessary regulatory approvals and permits, including Aboriginal heritage clearance to ensure drilling operations do not interfere with any sites of cultural significance.
As Reach waits for its remaining soil-sampling results to be returned from the laboratory in the coming weeks, preparations are being made to see what lies beneath as the lithium-hungry electric vehicle market shows no signs of slowing down.
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By Andrew Duffy
