With only months to go before making the leap into production, Neometals have discovered a new highly mineralized zone at their celebrated Mt Marion Lithium project near Coolgardie in Western Australia.
Deep Reverse Circulation drilling at Mt Marion has intercepted significant, deep, spodumene‐bearing pegmatite in consecutive drill holes along a south‐westerly trend at Area 2 West at the project.
Results are now in from 3 out of 6 holes drilled and all exhibit very long strike intersections with excellent grades well above the project’s total average grade of 1.39% Li2O.
Results include a 186m intersection grading 1.82% Li2O from 95m deep, 139m grading 1.69% Li2O from 116m and 92m@ 1.54% from just 54m down.
Further results are still pending from mineralized intersections discovered from 0‐27m, 52‐122m, and 172‐369m.
The headline numbers for the project currently sit at a globally significant 23.24Mt at 1.39% Li2O and 1.43% Fe2O3 at either Indicated and Inferred status.
The newest discovery was unexpected and sits outside of the existing resource and may impact the overall project profitability or mine life.
Neometals and their Chinese project partner Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium will now chase down the new discovery which appears to trend towards the processing plant with a follow up series of deep RC holes.
The Joint Venture partners have now committed to a new extension drilling exploration program to commence immediately with a nominal value of AUD$4m and with an anticipated completion timeline for this extended program of around 4 months.
With the Lithium market rapidly gaining favor with market punters, all eyes will be on Neometals when they release their much anticipated Mineral Resource and Mining Reserve estimate around the end of June.
The latest discovery zone will no doubt add some market speculation around just how big the Mt Marion project could be.
By Matt Birney
