Reverse-circulation (RC) drilling at Everest Metals Corporation's Mt Edon lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) project in Western Australia’s Mid-West region has intersected multiple pegmatites from surface to 111 metres deep within a 1.2-kilometre corridor.
While RC assays are imminent, surface rock-chip sampling has confirmed high grade rubidium of up to 3.1 per cent and lithium up to 4.6 per cent.
Everest expects its assay results to arrive back from the lab by the end of the month, but points out that the results have already prompted management to get to work on planning future drilling programs.
Everest Metals Corporation chief operating officer Simon Phillips said: “These outstanding results continue to confirm and unlock our belief in the potential of a highly fractionated and highly fertile LCT pegmatite system with a world class rubidium occurrence on the Mt Edon LCT Mining Lease. Planning is underway for next stage drilling”.
The Mt Edon LCT project is in the southern portion of the Paynes Find greenstone belt in the southern Murchison region, which hosts an extensive pegmatite field. It is an area known to host swarms of pegmatites and is considered highly-prospective for lithium, caesium, tantalum, rubidium, and rare earths mineralisation.
Everest completed its RC drilling program for a total of 441m late last month. It sunk 11 RC drill holes to an average depth of 40m across nine targets, with 1m core split samples collected.
The program has confirmed the deep-ground penetration radar targets, structural trends and exploration targets for future drilling programs. Drilling intersected pegmatite bodies in all holes but one, including several thick pegmatite intersections of up to 58m, while white mica-rich zones and minor lepidolite were observed in RC samples.
A total of 230 drill samples are now with the ALS laboratory in Perth for analysis and assays are expected by the end of the month.
Everest also collected 10 rock-chip samples during mapping and deep-ground penetration radar survey in March and April, which were also submitted to the ALS lab for assay. The results came back as the highest-grade surface rock-chip samples reported from Mt Edon to date, including up to 3.1 per cent rubidium, 4.6 per cent lithium and 0.34 per cent caesium.
Management notes that the ratio of potassium to rubidium supports highly-fertile fractionated pegmatites with world-class rubidium occurrences. All but two of the samples indicate highly-fractionated material and show high LCT-fertility pegmatites.
The market also appeared impressed with the news as Everest’s share price leapt up to 50 per cent higher on strong volumes after the company emerged from a brief trading pause to release its announcement to the ASX just after midday.
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By Meagan Evans
