Accelerate Resources Ltd (ASX:AX8) has discovered significant cobalt mineralisation in the first of three holes targeting a chargeable induced polarisation (IP) anomaly at its Mount Read Cobalt Project in western Tasmania.
Results from the Thomas Creek prospect include 3 metres at 0.23% cobalt from 150 metres, including 1 metre at 0.33% cobalt, and 1 metre at 0.15% cobalt and 0.31% copper from 157 metres.
A review of other ASX-listed cobalt stocks by Small Caps showed that most of the identified grades were around 0.1-0.15%, highlighting the significance of Accelerate’s result from the first drill hole.
Surface sampling indicates mineralisation
The chargeable anomaly is along the eastern margin of an ovoid aeromagnetic body, below a surface copper-cobalt anomaly.
It is around 400 metres at its widest point, up to 600 metres in length and around 100 metres below the surface.
Previous surface sampling at the Thomas Creek copper-cobalt-gold prospect returned results of 3,300ppm cobalt, 1.52% copper and 0.59 g/t gold from saprolitic bedrock beneath peaty soil cover.
Airborne EM targets at the Mount Read project
READ: Accelerate Resources’ survey aims to define cobalt-nickel drilling targets
The inclined hole intersected a sequence of altered andesitic lavas and volcanic breccias, cross-cut by several late stage intrusives, including potassium feldspar altered monzodiorites.
The significant cobalt mineralisation is hosted by semi-massive pyrite veins within a zone of coarsely disseminated pyrite, associated with hydrothermal breccias.
The Mount Read project is on the Sorrell Peninsula in western Tasmania.
It encompasses a belt of Cambrian volcano-sedimentary rocks correlated with the Mount Read Volcanics (MRV).
The MRV hosts all western Tasmania’s significant base and precious metal mines and mineral occurrences, several of which have been significant producers of base metals for over 100 years.
New era for cobalt
Small Caps writes: “Largely unloved until recent years, cobalt is welcoming a new era of soaring demand and prices, sparked by the metal’s uptake in the surging lithium-ion battery sector.
“Powering the lithium-ion battery’s demand is the flourishing sustainable energy and electric vehicle markets.
“Transparency Market Research predicts the lithium-ion battery market will be valued at US$77.4 billion by 2024, primarily driven by electric vehicles.
“Until the advent of the lithium-ion battery, cobalt was traditionally a by-product of nickel, silver, copper, lead, and iron mining.
“Now, the metal is sought in its own right for incorporation in the lithium-ion battery, which actually contains more cobalt than lithium.”