Kairos Minerals has identified significant new lithium soil anomalies at its Roe Hills project near Kalgoorlie. The lithium hits are near Kairos’s 2.6km long Black Cat lithium soil anomaly where preparations for drilling are well advanced. The company says Black Cat appears to have the same geology as Global Lithium’s nearby Manna deposit which has a JORC Mineral Resource estimate of 9.9 million tonnes at 1.14 per cent lithium oxide and 49 parts per million tantalum pentoxide. Global paid $60 million cash for the 20 per cent of Manna it did not own in October 2022.
A recent sampling program saw Kairos collect and assay 3541 soil samples from its wholly owned Roe Hills project. From the results the new soil lithium anomalies are reported to be coincident with mapped granites in a similar manner to Black Cat and Manna. The company now plans to undertake field-based verification mapping and rock chip sampling prior to drilling.
Kairos hold a large ground position of 353 square kilometres at Roe Hills and aside from gold is targeting lithium rich spodumene mineralisation in pegmatites close to granite akin to the Manna deposit.
Manna is a lithium-caesium-tantalum, or LCT, pegmatite deposit with a footprint of 750m by 130m in the main outcrop with individual pegmatite dykes up to 18m wide. By comparison Black Cat has a 2,600m strike length with a wide soil anomaly capable of holding a significant lithium pegmatite deposit. The new soil anomalies are of a scale not dissimilar to Black Cat.
Kairos Minerals Managing Director, Peter Turner said: “These quality and exciting soil targets highlight the lithium prospectivity at Lake Roe. We know that this area is fertile hunting ground in the shadow of the Manna Lithium deposit, and our 2.6km-long Black Cat soil anomaly shows huge promise to be a Manna lookalike. We now also have an additional half-a-dozen high-quality soil anomalies.”
According to Kairos the lithium soil anomalies are generally coincident with beryllium, caesium, gallium, rubidium, and tin which are elements associated with fractionated granites and pegmatites, especially LCT pegmatites.
Extensive new soil sampling will aim to extend the anomalies north and south and the program includes the remaining northern half of the Roe Hills tenements. The program will contain several high-priority targets associated with buried granitic rocks close to the Manna lithium deposit.
With drilling pads being prepared at Black Cat and multiple new lithium soil anomalies to chase, Kairos appears to have an interesting time ahead at Roe Hills.
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By Matt Birney
