Sipa Resources Ltd (ASX:SRI) is encouraged by the discovery of lithium, caesium and rubidium in reverse circulation (RC) drilling at its 100%-owned Skeleton Rocks Project in Western Australia’s Goldfields.
Assays results from a follow-up drill program conducted in September showed comparable levels of the metals to results from the March 2022 aircore drilling.
A further review of the drill chips and logging has been completed and additional samples have been submitted for assay, the results of which are pending.
The Skeleton Rocks Project showing the location of the drill program area.
September RC drill collars over lithium, caesium and rubidium halos identified in March aircore drilling.
New information
“First-prize would definitely have been the intersection of lithium-bearing pegmatites but the association of lithium, caesium and rubidium anomalism in specific veins is new information which we will use to vector toward the source of these metals, as the presence of these veins may indicate a nearby fertile granitic source,” Sipa Resources managing director Pip Darvall said.
Coherent halos of elevated lithium, caesium and rubidium were identified on the margins of greenstone units in the March drilling.
In September, these locations were further tested by deeper RC drilling, which intersected predominantly mafic units with several garnet-bearing quartz veins.
Limited drilling
The Skeleton Rocks project covers outcropping and interpreted greenstone units prospective for gold, lithium and nickel-copper-platinum group element deposits, with limited to no previous drilling ever completed in these areas.
It is between the Great Eastern Highway and the Mt Holland lithium project, currently being developed as part of a joint venture between Wesfarmers and Chilean mining major Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM).