Mila Resources PLC (LSE:MILA) has made good progress on its joint venture with Australia-listed giant Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) for lithium exploration at Mila’s Katleen Valley licence in Western Australia.
Mila and Liontown have held a number of meetings to establish a critical path towards commencing lithium exploration at Kathleen Valley.
Work is now well underway with Liontown to source water and secure heritage survey clearances ahead of exploration work, including soil sampling and trenching at target areas, according to an update posted on Wednesday.
Liontown's lithium exploration work is planned in the northwest, northeast and central areas of Kathleen Valley.
Mark Stephenson, executive chairman of Mila, commented: "Since securing our recent funding, we are excited to have kicked off several key preliminary work streams with Liontown ahead of the lithium exploration programme.
“We are very fortunate, as a junior exploration company, to be surrounded by leading mining groups in Australia and having the opportunity to work with and harness the expertise of a multi-billion-dollar mining company.”
Stephenson noted that the required social and environmental work is now underway and once completed it will allow Liontown to begin its exploration work targeting lithium mineralisation in the northwest, northeast and central areas of the project.
Pegmatite swarms are evident in these areas that may be part of the same mineralisation corridor as Liontown, immediately to the north of Mila’s project.
Mila updates on gold
Mila Resources also updated on the recent drilling of six reverse circulation (RC) holes for a total of 820 metres in June 2023, which was undertaken to test and assess gold resources by stepping out into a previously untested northwestern border.
The drilling campaign has uncovered structural features and supergene mineralisation providing further indication of the project's mineralisation potential.
These findings will be integrated into a comprehensive geological-structural review of the property, which should reduce the exploration risk associated with further work on the property.
“The recent assays from our relatively limited drilling programme have helped us to better understand the direction and diameters of the gold mineralisation at the project,” commented Stephenson.
“These suggest that the gold is focused, aiding our understanding of the structure. We embarked on this drilling campaign to understand the structure of the orebody and each drill hole provides further intelligence to prove up our geological model that it is highly structured, featuring concentrated zones of high-grade mineralisation."