St George Mining has defined a series of 1km-long lithium soil anomalies in areas yet to be drill-tested at its flagship Mt Alexander project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region after a successful sampling program.
The company is now gearing up to drill the new targets as early as next month, with its biggest prospect covering a strike of more than 2.7km and a second measuring an impressive 1.7km by 1.3km. A third high-priority prospect is in a similar geological context to Delta Lithium’s Mt Ida deposit that holds a mineral resource of 14.6 million tonnes grading 1.2 per cent lithium oxide.
St George says the lithium values it identified in the recent soil sampling program also contain anomalous caesium and tantalum, which are considered key pathfinder elements for potential lithium mineralisation.
Management says assay results from drilling at its Jailbreak prospect at Mt Alexander in 2022 and early last year confirmed the presence of lithium-mineralised pegmatites that start from or near the surface and continue to depths of up to 300m below surface. Drill results show grades of up to 1.8 per cent lithium oxide at Jailbreak.
St George has dubbed the biggest lithium anomaly area Jailbreak East and it sits within the same geological setting as the Jailbreak prospect that is known to host high-grade lithium mineralisation. The three additional areas of interest have been named Mt Alexander East, Manta and Manta East.
The company says extensions and in-filling to the current soil surveys are already planned to further define and add to its current list of potential lithium targets.
St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said: “The consistency and cohesiveness of the lithium values within these large-scale anomalies is impressive. The coincident pathfinder elements like tantalum and caesium as well as the extensive pegmatite outcrop make these areas compelling drill targets.”
Prineas said drilling approvals were in place and the company was keen to start testing its “promising” targets.
Mt Alexander consists of seven connected exploration licences and one prospecting licence. All sites are fully-owned by St George, apart from the site containing the Manta prospect.
Manta sits on a granted exploration licence and is covered by a joint venture (JV) between St George, which manages the project and holds 75 per cent, and giant miner IGO. The latter has taken up the remaining share in a non-contributing interest until there is a decision to mine.
The company has engaged external consulting firm ERM, formerly known as CSA Global, to advise on the lithium prospectivity and targeting at Mt Alexander. Management says ERM has been involved in many lithium projects in WA and is widely recognised for its industry-leading expertise in hard rock lithium mineralisation.
With only a fraction of the large Mt Alexander tenements tested by drilling to date, St George says the recently-identified soil anomalies represent compelling targets for potential new discoveries.
And the market seems to agree with the company’s share price jumping 16 per cent during intraday trading to touch 2.9c after a previous close of 2.5c, with more than 2.2 million shares changing hands earlier today.
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By Michael Philipps
