Askari Metals has put the full stop on an extensive field work program after collecting 800 soil samples at its Red Peak project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region in its mission to test anomalous areas of lithium and rare earths.
Management says the results of the program will help shape further exploration plans, including a maiden drill campaign.
Earlier work by Askari on the 350 square kilometres of its Red Peak project in January last year uncovered several areas that came up as highly anomalous for rare earths including lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium and europium. While the area has not been extensively explored, it has seen its fair share of mapping and those efforts have identified more than 11 significant lithium pegmatites with strike lengths of greater than 3km and going between 150m and 200m wide.
It was these anomalous areas that the company’s latest soil sampling campaign targeted with its 380 auger samples and 420 manual samples.
Askari Metals executive director Gino D’Anna said: "The company’s aggressive exploration campaigns on its Australian portfolio continues, with the completion of a geochemical sampling program at Red Peak. Askari looks forward to discovering the Rare Earth Element (REE) and lithium potential of the Red Peak project through this comprehensive program.”
Management believes the targeted mineralisation at the Red Peak project is a carbon copy to that which has been developed by Krakatoa Resources’ Mt Clere project, which sits north-west of the area and holds a current resource of 101 million tonnes of rare earths.
While Askari has been making the headlines with its Uis lithium project in Namibia, it also holds an expanding portfolio of projects in Australia. Apart from its Red Peak project, the company holds 2300sq km in WA’s emerging Eastern Pilbara lithium region – an area that has become a hive of exploration activity.
In June, management finalised the purchase of its Hillside lithium project from Greenstone Lithium. It covers two granted tenements considered prospective for lithium, tin and tantalum mineralisation.
Askari is also chasing lithium and rare earths in the Northern Territory at its Barrow Creek project that has returned rock-chip samples of up to 4553 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) . The project is within 40km of Arafura Rare Earths’ Nolans Bore deposit that hosts a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 56 million tonnes at 2.6 per cent TREO.
The project covers 278sq km in the Top End’s south and is surrounded by holdings owned by Core Lithium and the recently-listed Lithium Plus Minerals. The Arunta pegmatite province is known for hosting extensive pegmatites and is considered highly-prospective for spodumene-dominated hard-rock lithium mineralisation.
With Askari’s Uis project in Namibia going from strength to strength, its Australian projects are now starting to elbow their way into the spotlight as things start to take shape. And as market attention continues to focus on lithium and rare earths, things could start to get interesting for the company should its local assets start to deliver on their potential.
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By Steve Kaless
