Aldoro Resources has uncovered a string of high-grade rubidium from a pegmatite rock chip sampling program at its Wyemandoo project approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Mount Magnet in WA. According to the company, the assay results pointed to “exceptional” grades of up to 1.24 per cent in individual samples and says lithium and tantalum were also present.
The company states the rubidium results have a range of values that average 1,662.7 ppm or 0.166 per cent and says the grades have been boosted by four hits that ran at 1 per cent rubidium and 45 samples that graded between 0.2 to 0.9 per cent. The results also include a lithium hit going 1.05 per cent.
The findings are based on the sampling of three core pegmatite tenements recently tested at project. The Wyemandoo project forms part of the larger Windimurra igneous complex, a sheared, layered ultra-mafic/mafic intrusion that has been cross-cut by an extensive network of pegmatite dykes.
According to the company, the recently sampled pegmatites have been defined as lithium-caesium-tantalum or “LCT”, a subset of granitic pegmatites associated with the Bald Rock Supersuite. LCT pegmatites are known to house a variety of strategic rare elements, including niobium, tantalum, and caesium.
Rubidium is typically used to remove trace gases from vacuum tubes and in the manufacturing of photocells and specialty glasses and is importantly often seen as a pathfinder element for its more famous cousin lithium.
The company is presently in the midst of a drilling campaign at the nearby Niobe Pegmatite project, that is approaching completion with six RC holes outstanding.
Aldoro says it anticipates the work at Niobe to be wrapped up in a month or so and will subsequently mobilise the drill rig to Wyemandoo, where it will launch a major greenfield drilling campaign to follow up its promising rubidium results.
The company has previously suggested the Wyemandoo pegmatites could represent a new rubidium and lithium-bearing lepidolite district in Western Australia and will be keen to get the rods turning following its work at Niobe.
Interestingly, the company’s battery metals ground lies some 25km north of Lithium Australia’s prospective tenements in the Youanmi pegmatite field.
Aldoro's results at the Wyemandoo project appear to have arrived at the perfect time, with demand for all things lithium reaching fever pitch as economies look to achieve a net zero carbon emission target by 2050. Things could get moving if the company can build on its promising rock chip results especially if the rubidium leads it to the lithium promised land.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
