After further field work, mineral explorer St George Mining believes it has significantly expanded the lithium potential of its Mt Alexander nickel — and now lithium — project 95km west of Leonora in WA. Since first announcing it was on the lithium trail in early September, the explorer has identified an increasing number of pegmatite outcrops in its field mapping efforts across a 15km zone of pegmatite dykes at its project.
A further 119 rock chip samples from the prospective pegmatites have been collected and based on visual observations, St George says a number of samples appear to include lithium minerals in the form of spodumene and lepidolite.
All samples will be sent to the lab for assay and selected samples will also undergo analysis by portable x-ray diffraction spectrometer with final results expected as early as next week.
In addition to its own preliminary field work, the company’s review of historical nickel-focused drilling at Mt Alexander has revealed significant intervals of pegmatites that were never assayed.
In one case, a diamond drill hole reportedly intersected pegmatites between 66.5m and 86.5m downhole with no assays.
The explorer continues to pore over the trove of historical data as it looks to test any available pegmatite intersections.
St George’s lithium-focused exploration has identified extensive pegmatites across two of the project’s tenements thus far — one tenement is wholly owned whereas the other is held in a 75/25 joint venture with IGO, a $10 billion-market-capped multi-commodity explorer.
Across its wholly owned tenement, a spread of soil sampling is underway designed to pick up possible extensions of pegmatite outcrops masked by covering sediments.
From its early observations of the visible outcropping pegmatites across the project, St George says its project may form part of an underexplored lithium province first identified by ASX-listed Red Dirt Metals just 16km to the south-east.
St George Mining Executive Chairman, John Prineas said: “This lithium work is a fantastic complement to our nickel exploration at Mt Alexander, which is progressing in parallel with a fixed loop electromagnetic survey scheduled to start next week. This will enable final modelling of several promising nickel targets for drill testing.”
As the explorer moves to sure up its nickel and lithium targets at the project it appears shareholders could be in for an exciting flow of news once St George fires up its drill rig sometime in the final quarter of this year.
Whilst traditionally a nickel project, Mt Alexander has found itself in one of the country’s fastest emerging new lithium provinces after the significant high-grade lithium discovery by Red Dirt at its nearby Mt Ida project in 2021.
The explorer to the south-east managed to pull a 21.7m intercept going 2.11 per cent lithium oxide from 250m out of its ground last year with spodumene confirmed by the lab as the dominant mineral.
In July this year, Red Dirt announced an additional discovery of pegmatites with drill intersections going 4m at 1.1 per cent lithium oxide from 260m. Notably, the encounter materially expanded Red Dirt’s discovery zone in the direction of St George’s ground.
St George and Red Dirt aren’t the only explorers in the prospective territory either.
In August, Gina Reinhart’s Hancock Prospecting moved to assess the lithium potential of its Mt Bevan iron ore project that it is currently farming into, immediately south of where St George spotted its pegmatites.
The competition doesn’t stop there either. In May, ASX-listed Zenith Minerals scooped up land immediately north of St George also citing outcropping pegmatites and anomalous lithium in its soils.
Given St George's nickel project may also contain a lick of lithium, the explorer could find itself chiming in on the impending green revolution in which the two metals are set to play central roles.
In the face of Goldman Sachs’ dooming battery metals report released in May, lately it appears the price of lithium is booming once again.
The Shanghai Metals Market observed today that battery-grade lithium carbonate was trading at record prices above US$71,600.
Similarly today, through Pilbara Minerals’ Battery Metal Exchange auction platform, the producer’s sales equated to a price of more than US$7700 per tonne for its spodumene six per cent concentrate product
For comparison, in its second auction back in July last year, Pilbara Minerals raked in an equivalent price of just US$2500 per tonne.
It appears now could once again be the time to catch the lithium wave.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
