Emerging lithium powerhouse Galan Lithium is set to spin the drill rods at its wholly-owned Greenbushes South project after approval from the Department of Mines, Industry, Regulation and Safety for the company’s submitted Program of Works.
The Greenbushes South Project tenement is located within spitting distance of the famed Greenbushes lithium mine and the initial campaign will see approximately 2,500 metres of drilling test the first of several key targets.
The company says the construction of drill pads is complete with drilling to start as early as this week.
Galan got tongues wagging in August when a 500m pegmatite outcrop was discovered on one of its tenements three kilometres south of Talison.
Leading up to the planned drilling, Galan has been busy with a 550 soil sample survey that has now been submitted for analysis. The soil samples were collected around multiple new spodumene-bearing pegmatite outcrops identified over recent months and the results will assist in targeting and delineating mineralisation beneath the subsurface.
Additionally, a ground geophysics survey commenced earlier this month based on previously identified targets defined by high concentrations of lithium and other trace elements in soil samples. The results from the geophysics are expected later this quarter.
Following a recent $3 million deal with Lithium Australia, Galan now owns 100 per cent of the Greenbushes South project that spans an area of approximately 315 square kilometres.
Galan Lithium Managing Director, Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega said: “We look forward to testing our hypothesis, via this maiden drilling campaign, that significant lithium mineralisation exists south of the Greenbushes Mine. We are extremely encouraged by all data collected to date that demonstrates the strong potential for this to be the case. This includes having multiple observations of minerals associated with pegmatites only one metre below the sub-surface in the area we are about to drill.”
Galan’s project is located about 200km south of Perth in WA and the tenements are located along the trace of the famous Donnybrook-Bridgetown Shear Zone, or “DBSZ” the same structure that hosts Talison’s celebrated Greenbushes lithium pegmatite project which holds the accolade of being the largest hard rock lithium mine in the world. The 1.34 million tonnes per annum Greenbushes mine has been churning out lithium since 1983 and is yet to show signs of slowing down, with Talison drafting up a third processing plant and tailings retreatment facility to further boost production.
The Greenbushes pegmatites are of the lithium-caesium-tantalum style of pegmatite and extend over a whopping 3km and are up to 300m wide, with numerous smaller pegmatite dykes and pods bordering the main body. The pegmatites are mineralogically zoned with a 2km long, incredibly well-endowed lithium zone, composed of up to 50 per cent of lithium-bearing mineral spodumene.
Galan also holds the Kirup project located to the north of Greenbushes South, which also partially straddles the DBSZ structure. Extensive target generation has been undertaken based on the processing of Galan’s aerial geophysics survey completed last year. Management believes four large target areas demonstrate strong prospectivity for buried lithium pegmatites and field mapping and soil sampling are now planned for these target areas.
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