Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT) has identified assays of up to 4.08% lithium in recent fieldwork conducted at the Ravensthorpe Lithium Project, located 500 kilometres south east of Perth in Western Australia.
Ravensthorpe is located only a few kilometres from the Mt Cattlin lithium mine operated by Galaxy Resources Ltd (ASX:GXY) and General Mining Corporation Ltd (ASX:GMM).
Soil sampling will continue at Ravensthorpe and drilling is planned pending the completion of environmental surveys and site-works.
Adrian Griffin, managing director, commented:
“Exploration success at Ravensthorpe adds significant potential to our Yilgarn portfolio that has been recently expanded through the consolidation of mineral rights at Lake Johnston, and the Widgiemooltha acquisition within the Goldfields Lithium Alliance with Cazaly Resources.
"The identification of abundant lithium pegmatites at Ravensthorpe is pleasing, and confirms the potential of the area, long since realized by Galaxy Resources, at nearby Mt Cattlin.”
Ravensthorpe fieldwork details
The Ravensthorpe project contains three prospects – Horseshoe, Deep Purple and Phillips South.
The Horseshoe Prospect hosts an Exploration Target of 900,000 tonnes of lithium mineralisation at a minimum grade of 1% lithium.
Rock chip assays from Phillips South and Horseshoe included:
- Phillips South: 2.51% lithium
- Phillips South: 2.35% lithium
- Horseshoe #1: 2.96% lithium
- Horseshoe #1: 2.30% lithium
- Horseshoe #1: 3.14% lithium
- Horseshoe #1: 2.71% lithium
- Horseshoe #1: 3.80% lithium
- Horseshoe #1: 4.08% lithium
Upcoming exploration
Soil sampling is planned for the Phillips South Prospect, north of the Deep Purple Prospect and in
an area 1 kilometre west of the Horseshoe Prospect.
Drilling is planned for both the Horseshoe and Deep Purple prospects but will not be commenced
until completion of environmental surveys and subsequent site-works.
Soil sampling and site-works requires dry conditions.
Analysis
This fieldwork being undertaken at Ravensthorpe shows further evidence of pegmatites in the area similar to the nearby Mt Cattlin operating lithium mine.
The mineralisation within the Ravensthorpe project is hosted by the Cocanarup lithium pegmatite
swarm, located only a few kilometres to the south-west of the Mt Cattlin.
The Cocanarup pegmatites are considered to be a structural equivalent of the pegmatites at Mt Cattlin.
These encouraging rock chip and soil sampling assays are leading indicators of the potential the Ravensthorpe project has to host an economic lithium deposit.
Drilling at these targets will be a key determinant for Lithium Australia and provides leverage to exploration upside.
Lithium Australia is positioned well within a strong lithium market, developing both, processing technology that is potentially applicable on a global scale, and growing a portfolio of lithium projects.
Lithium Australia is trading up 75% year to date, currently trading at $0.295.
Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX emerging companies with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.