St George Mining has launched a fresh lithium exploration campaign at its Mt Alexander project in Western Australia, with soil sampling, pegmatite mapping and outcrop sampling now underway at the operation.
The company says the program has been designed to test new lithium targets, in addition to an 8km-long zone around its Manta prospect where its previous drilling intersected a 121m-thick fractionated pegmatite. A first batch of 212 soil samples has already been submitted to the laboratory, with results expected in about a month.
Manta sits on a granted exploration licence and is covered by a joint venture between St George, which manages the project and holds 75 per cent, and giant miner IGO. The latter has taken up the remaining share in a non-contributing interest until there is a decision to mine.
Management says assay results from drilling at its Jailbreak prospect at Mt Alexander late last year and early this year confirmed the presence of lithium-mineralised pegmatites that start from or near the surface and continue to depths of up to 300m below surface. Drill results show grades of up to 1.8 per cent lithium oxide at the target.
St George says many of the targets in its fieldwork campaign have a similar geological context to Delta Lithium’s Mt Ida lithium deposit, which is about 15km south-east of Mt Alexander. The project also sits 100km south of Liontown Resources’ Kathleen Valley lithium project that has a mineral resource of 156 million tonnes at 1.4 per cent lithium oxide and 130 parts per million tantalum oxide, with an expected mine life of about 23 years.
In addition to the mapping and rock-chip sampling program, a geochemical soil survey has been designed to test areas of minimal exposure, or where pegmatites may be buried below surface. The company expects the survey to wrap up before the end of this month.
Mt Alexander consists of seven connected exploration licences and one prospecting licence. All sites are fully owned by St George, apart from the site containing the Manta prospect.
St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said: “Our initial exploration at Mt Alexander has confirmed the presence of high-grade lithium as well as very thick pegmatites – up to 121m thick. These results support the potential for a large lithium-bearing pegmatite mineral system. Our fieldwork will provide further information on the zonation, thickness and distribution of pegmatites along the more than 16km stretch of the regional LCT corridor on our tenure.”
Assays from 18 holes drilled in a maiden program at the company’s Jailbreak prospect last year confirmed lithium-bearing pegmatites extending from surface to 220m. Results from the campaign include 14m at 0.32 per cent lithium from 69m and 5m grading 0.7 per cent lithium from 19m. There were also 16 individual 1m sections that gave results of up to 1.8 per cent lithium oxide from a variety of depths between 20m and 262m.
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By Michael Philipps
