SensOre Ltd (ASX:S3N) subsidiary Exploration Ventures AI Pty Ltd (EXAI) has confirmed the presence of lithium-bearing pegmatites in rock chips at the recently discovered Buttamiah Prospect on the Abbotts North Project leases in Western Australia.
The application of SensOre’s proprietary AI/ML complemented through reconnaissance mapping and sampling, has identified a new pegmatite field within the Abbotts Greenstone Belt sequence.
Lithium mineralisation within the Buttamiah Prospect has now been confirmed with rock chip samples reporting encouraging assays up to 1.25% Li2O:
- 23ANR008 - 5,800 parts per million (ppm) lithium, 397ppm caesium, 138ppm tantalum;
- 23ANR013 - 4,070ppm lithium, 224ppm caesium, 107ppm tantalum; and
- 23ANR015 - 4,050ppm lithium, 512ppm caesium, 390ppm tantalum
At least three separate pegmatite dykes were identified with potassium/rubidium ratios less than 10 indicating a highly fractionated, fertile field.
New lithium discovery
SensOre Richard Taylor said: "SensOre and Deutsche Rohstoff are excited by EXAI’s success at Buttamiah.
“We are encouraged to see a new lithium discovery in a district with no previous lithium identified.
“In a market where prospective lithium projects attract a significant premium, EXAI has moved on to an area where conventional targeting has overlooked the prospectivity, despite the presence of previously mapped pegmatites.
“On the back of success on this and other projects, SensOre and Deutsche Rohstoff are exploring options for the EXAI portfolio using SensOre’s proprietary artificial intelligence-driven targeting tools.”
EXAI’s Buttamiah Prospect within the Abbotts North Lithium Project with location of rock chip samples.
About Buttamiah
The Buttamiah Prospect is in EXAI’s Abbotts North Project, about 35 kilometres north of Meekatharra in the Murchison region.
Geologically the prospect is within a largely basaltic sequence of the Abbots Greenstone belt.
The Abbotts Greenstone belt consists of a succession of mafic and ultramafic units as well as felsic volcanics and sediments.
The pegmatites in the vicinity of the anomalous (>0.1% Li2O) samples at surface are 2-3 metres wide and up to 350 metres long.
Several areas have multiple sub-parallel units. Overall, the pegmatite field remains open to the north and under cover.
This sequence has been intruded by porphyries, pegmatites and granites.
The margins of the belt are structurally complex and the belt is bounded by granites and monzogranites to the east, west and north.