GreenTech Metals has confirmed its discovery of a new southern high-grade lithium pegmatite trend, with solid hits of up to 3.6 per cent lithium oxide in the latest assays reported from its Osborne joint venture (JV) in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Management believes the find could extend the overall scale of pegmatite-hosted lithium mineralisation eastwards from the company’s adjoining Ruth Well project. Its previous reconnaissance rock-sampling programs had targeted the pegmatite zone extending from Ruth Well into the Osborne JV it shares with Artemis Resources – its biggest shareholder.
The program scored solid lithium oxide grades in respective rock-chip samples of 1.48, 1.58 and 1.8 per cent, in addition to two lower, but supportive, hits of 0.19 and 0.22 percent lithium oxide. When taken together, management says the hits confirm the eastward extension of its Ruth Well pegmatite trend into the Osborne ground.
The company’s latest reconnaissance sampling of a further 30 rock chips was designed to confirm the results and interpretations of previous work and test for the possible extension. It took 17 of the samples from the south-eastern part of Osborne.
Encouragingly, seven of the latest samples returned positive results above 0.1 percent lithium oxide. It included respective samples reporting 3.63 and 2.3 percent lithium oxide on a new, distinct and previously-untested pegmatite trend lying between 2.5km and 3km south-east of the most easterly limits of the Ruth Well trend defined to date within the Osborne JV’s ground.
GreenTech Metals executive director Thomas Reddicliffe said: “GreenTech is very encouraged by the discovery of this second lithium pegmatite trend at the Osborne JV with Artemis. Initial assays from this new lithium pegmatite trend indicate a potentially higher-grade lithium trend than our original discovery and highlights the potential to discover further lithium pegmatite zones within the existing tenement package. GreenTech has established a great foundation in this growing lithium province in the West Pilbara and these latest results further reinforce our belief that there is significant lithium pegmatite potential on our tenements.”
Moreover, two additional samples taken a few hundred metres north-west of the high-grade values, reported respective results of 0.55 and 0.48 per cent lithium oxide, signalling a need for further investigation as it may indicate an additional pegmatite trend parallel to, or a blow-out of the inferred southern trend.
Pegmatites do not always outcrop continuously at surface and require rigorous mapping and other investigations to establish the definitive interpretations of their extent, size, continuity, structure and relationships.
GreenTech says it will incorporate information from the discovery of the two trends discovered so far with other historical datasets to better understand the known lithium-bearing pegmatite structure and to try and identify new trends in its combined project area.
The company was primarily established to discover, acquire and develop Australian and overseas projects containing minerals and metals typically used in the battery storage and electric vehicle sectors. Its founding projects are focused on the underexplored nickel, copper and cobalt in the West Pilbara and Fraser Range provinces.
But it is now developing a new, complementary feather in its cap with its emerging lithium prospectivity.
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By Doug Bright
