European Lithium (ASX:EUR) has encountered pegmatite intersections in its first deep diamond hole at the Wolfsberg Lithium Project in Austria.
The company has completed and logged the first of four deep diamond core drill holes planned at Wolfsberg in Zone 1.
The core from the first hole has been sampled and sent for geochemical assaying and initial assay results are anticipated in early April.
This is the first deep diamond program ever completed at the Wolfsberg project and the results have exceeded expectations.
Drilling at Zone 2 will commence after all the results from the current program have been received and evaluated.
Tony Sage, chairman, commented: "We are excited to have proved the extension of pegmatite veins at depth and look forward to completing the drilling program and reporting assay results."
Current drilling program
Current drilling follows the 75% increase in the JORC resource tonnages to 6.3 million tonnes at 1.17% lithium oxide completed in November 2016.
Drilling contractors remobilised on 9 January commencing a drilling campaign on the deep holes in Zone 1.
The first drill hole, that has been despatched for assay had a total length of 515.9 metres.
The second drill hole has been finalised and will be logged and sampled within the next two weeks before being despatched for assay.
Drilling of the third drill hole commenced on 7th March 2017.
Background
European Lithium, relisted on the ASX during September 2016 after acquiring the Wolfsberg Lithium Project.
The project is comprised of 22 original and 32 overlapping exploration licences and a mining licence over 11 mining areas has been issued by the Austrian Mining Authority.
Wolfsberg was discovered by Minerex in the 1980s, a period when the lithium demand and price did not support project development.
European Lithium undertook a successful program to verify the Minerex historical data, which has been used to in associate with recent drill results to compile this JORC resource.
The project has had 17,000 metres of drilling and 1,400 metres of declines, drives and crosscuts completed and installed by previous owners, and this work will allow the company to examine routes to fast track the development phase.
Furthermore, test-work has demonstrated that waste dilution from mining can be successfully separated from pegmatite ore by laser based sorting.
Analysis
European Lithium remains leveraged to short term news flow with assays from the first hole expected in the short term.
The company’s near term goals are using the current drill program results to increase the Wolfsberg lithium JORC resource further and finalise a pre-feasibility study.
While the recent 75% increase in the JORC resource was a key step for the company in its fast-track plans, further resource increases will support the longevity of the project.
It will allow the company to establish the most suitable mining method and maximum production rate and establish the optimum process for recovery of lithium concentrate, marketable by-products and battery grade lithium products.
As part of the company’s strategy to fast-track Wolfsberg’s development, SRK Consulting was engaged to undertake the mine design studies for the pre-feasibility study.
An initial 7 week program is underway to address mine planning, geotechnical analysis, stope optimisation, production rate analysis, mine production scheduling and high level capital and operating costs.