ASX-listed Aruma Resources has unveiled plans to undertake a maiden round of RC drilling at its Mount Deans lithium project approximately 10 kilometres south of Norseman in WA. The Perth-based company says it will look to investigate the potential for the project to harbour direct shipping lithium ores, given its location close to road and rail infrastructure that provides relatively easy access to the Port of Esperance.
The initial first-pass drill program at Mount Deans, which Aruma describes as “highly prospective” for lithium minerals, tantalum and rare earth elements, is slated to kick off in the June quarter and will be targeted at an interpreted “cauldron”-type anomaly at the confluence of the east and west-dipping pegmatite limbs.
Mount Deans is located within WA’s lithium corridor in south-east WA, which takes in multiple significant hard-rock lithium projects. Aruma says the project is interpreted to sit within the same host rocks and structures as the nearby Mount Marion, Bald Hill and Buldania lithium projects.
According to the company, the Mount Deans area contains a “swarm” of 71 recognised pegmatites covering 4.5 kilometres by 1.5km that trend north-north-west. The pegmatites range from 500 metres to 2km in length and 0.3m-7.5metres thick, with some 20m thick.
The pegmatites have an upper portion quartz-poor, feldspar-rich marginal layer, which is where most of the cassiterite and tantalum occurs, Aruma says. The company believes the pegmatites in the project area are thought to be deeper and are suggested to be closer to a main cauldron or “chamber” that may host spodumene-rich material.
Prime examples of this style of deposit are Liontown Resources’ Buldania and Kathleen Valley lithium deposits, where finger-like thin, steep pegmatites coalesce into a thick spodumene zone at shallow depth, Aruma says.
Prior exploration done on the Mount Deans project area almost two decades ago by previous owners identified pegmatites within the lease over a 1.5km strike length.
Aruma also conducted work earlier on in the form of limited rock chip sampling that returned very encouraging lithium and tantalum results. Better rock chip values included lithium oxide grades of up to 2.1 per cent and tantalum pentoxide grades of up to 556 parts per million, together with rare earth anomalies.
The Mount Deans project prospecting licence area covers 1.44 square kilometres of the Mount Deans pegmatite field in the Eastern Goldfields.
The Mount Deans pegmatite field covers an area of 6km north-to-south and extends 4km east-to-west and comprises multiple individual pegmatite sheets and lenses. It occurs in the north-south-trending Dundas Hill greenstone belt.
Aruma intends drilling 12 RC holes in the first phase of drilling at the Mount Deans project to a maximum depth of 200 metres, spaced approximately 120m apart in its quest to intersect the possible pegmatite “cauldron”.
The drilling is designed to test for spodumene and other lithium minerals, in addition to tantalum, tin and rare earth minerals.
Aruma Resources Managing Director, Peter Schwann said: “Aruma is of the view that the previous lithium results plus the high-grade tantalum and rare earth elements results, together with the infrastructure advantages afforded by the project’s location, make Mount Deans a highly exciting lithium exploration opportunity.”
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By Matt Birney
