De Grey Mining Limited (ASX:DEG) is commencing drilling at the King Col Pegmatite in Western Australia, following the successful application for co-funding.
The King Col pegmatite lies within De Grey’s tenements located within 40 kilometres from Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) world-class Pilgangoora deposit (156.3 million tonnes at 1.25% lithium).
The co-funding has been approved under the Western Australia government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS), which will contribute $61,000 to De Grey’s program, being circa 50% of the cost.
The previous sampling by De Grey at the King Col Pegmatite Trend highlighted anomalous lithium and other associated elements for lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) style mineralisation.
De Grey’s reconnaissance rock chip sampling and subsequent follow-up systematic soil sampling has defined strong anomalies over an initial 2 kilometre strike length.
Further sampling is required to test the remaining 5.5 kilometres of the overall 7.5 kilometres long pegmatite trend.
The rock chip results highlight anomalous lithium results ranging from 0.15% to 4.22% lithium.
The drilling program will initially comprise circa 1,500 metres of reverse circulation drilling across the three main anomalous zones.
The drilling will test beneath the anomalous lithium-in-soil zones and determine the mineralisation potential in fresh bedrock.
Subject to positive results, a further program of diamond drilling will be undertaken to obtain fresh mineralisation in drill core for detailed mineralogical evaluation.
This will aim to define the presence of spodumene in the pegmatite system. Spodumene is the key lithium mineral in most lithium bearing pegmatite orebodies throughout the world.