Core Exploration Ltd (ASX:CXO) has received promising new assay results from drilling at its Grants deposit in the Northern Territory.
Reverse circulation and diamond core infill drilling continue to demonstrate the consistency of high-grade spodumene intersections at the deposit.
Among the drilling results were 41.1 metres at 1.8% lithium from 71.3 metres and 41 metres at 1.6% lithium from 115 metres.
READ: Core Exploration makes history by drilling widest spodumene intersection
Grants is part of Core’s 100%-owned Finniss Lithium Project near Darwin.
These results build on highly impressive results received in February.
READ: Core Exploration has Chinese backing to transform into lithium producer
Core has recently entered into a binding lithium offtake agreement and a conditional US$20 million prepayment agreement with one of China’s largest lithium producers.
Management has also established an agreement to export spodumene products from Darwin Port.
98% of holes host mineralisation
The drilling which started in February aims to upgrade the confidence level of the initial high-grade lithium mineral resource announced in 2017.
The program has been highly successful, with 49 out of the 50 resource definition holes drilled since discovery being consistently mineralised.
High-grade spodumene has been identified from the eastern wall to the western wall of the pegmatite ore body at Grants.
Lithium grades up to 3.3%
The presence of narrow, but very high-grade intervals, grading up to 3.35% lithium, is also becoming apparent in the assays of drill core.
These high-grade zones reflect the concentration and large size of the spodumene crystals present in the Grants pegmatite.
This should provide advantages for processing of the ore to concentrate.
Upgraded resource to feed into pre-feasibility study
The key objective of the recently completed infill drill program has been to convert the existing mineral resource to mostly indicated and measured.
With the resource drilling completed and assay results received, evaluation of an updated mineral resource estimate has commenced.
Core anticipates that these new drill results will substantially add to the proportion of the mineral resource in the indicated and measured categories at Grants.
This will enable calculation of the mining inventory in the pre-feasibility study which is underway.