St George Mining has recommenced lithium exploration at its emerging Mount Alexander lithium pegmatite field approximately 200km north of Kalgoorlie WA.
The latest rock chip assays for the area returned results up to 2.8 per cent lithium oxide and 1.26 per cent rubidium oxide. The company is zeroing in on prospective greenstone hosted pegmatites that have been identified in a 15km long zone adjacent to the Copperfield Granite. The pegmatites are along strike from Red Dirt Metals’ October 2022 released Mount Ida resource of 12.7Mt at 1.2 per cent lithium oxide.
The company is expecting assays from its first 23 RC drill holes within weeks after lithium minerals were logged in 20 of the drill holes.
Mapping and sampling is already underway to identify high-grade lithium pegmatites and follow-up drilling is set to commence in the coming weeks. 20,000m of drilling is scheduled for the first half of 2023 with further exploration dependent upon results. The company is focusing on previously undrilled lithium targets including the highly prospective Copperfield Granite contact.
The company returns to Mount Alexander with its saddlebags full of cash having raised $9.2m in the last quarter. The company has also been busy forming alliances with three world leading lithium-ion battery companies, Shanghai Jayson, SVOLT Energy Technology and Sunwoda Electronic.
New rock chip assays have the last exploration off on the right foot with fresh lithium results up to 2.8 per cent lithium oxide, 227 parts per million caesium, 335 parts per million tantalum pentoxide and 1.26 per cent rubidium oxide. St George believes strongly elevated levels of caesium, tantalum and rubidium means the geochemistry is highly indicative of fractionated pegmatites that are prospective for lithium mineralisation.
Rubidium is commonly found in lepidolite and has the potential to add considerable value as rubidium carbonate currently sells for over US$1,000 per kilogram with prices up to five times more for high purity products. The current price works out to a mind-blowing figure of over $1 million per tonne.
St George Mining Executive Chairman, John Prineas said: “Extensive field mapping and sampling continued to identify new pegmatite outcrop along the 15km pegmatite corridor in our project tenure. Assays from rock chip samples collected last year confirm an extension to the area at the Jailbreak Prospect that hosts pegmatite outcrop with high-grade lithium. Results provide further encouragement of the exploration upside at Mt Alexander.”
The company says that 123 rock chip samples have been sent to the laboratory in 2023 and field observations are that the pegmatites can be up to 20m in width. Exploration is currently underway targeting outcropping pegmatites over a 36 square kilometre area on wholly owned ground and the tenure where IGO holds 25 per cent and St George 75 per cent. The area hosts repetitive and stacked lithium-bearing pegmatite outcrops which were the focus of the first drilling program.
The next round of drilling will target down dip and strike extensions to the recently drilled Jailbreak prospect and previously undrilled pegmatite targets. The contact zones of lithium source granites will be a particular focus to identify replicas of Red Dirt’s Mount Ida lithium growing resource.
St George will be hoping its large area of juicy lithium-rubidium targets will deliver especially with a long list of lithium battery makers looking over its shoulder. If the next round of work with the drill bit hits it mark, then 2023 could get very interesting for the explorer.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
