Jindalee Resources Limited (ASX:JRL) has increased its tenement size at the McDermitt Lithium Project in the US with an additional 12 claims adjacent to the existing 242 claims.
The claims will expand the size of the project by around 45% to 28.6 kilometres and cover the along-strike continuation of lithium mineralised sediments already identified in sampling and drilling.
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The company estimated an exploration target at the project in November last year which recorded the lower end of the exploration target range (ETR) at 160-780 million tonnes at 1300-1600 ppm lithium.
This includes a high-grade ETR of 20-80 million tonnes at 2100-2600 ppm within one discrete horizon, representing an ideal target for follow-up work.
The ETR was confirmed after four vertical diamond drill holes to an average depth of 90 metres were completed in September 2018.
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The project is 25 kilometres west of Mcdermitt township on the Nevada-Oregon border and about 30 kilometres from Lithium Americas Corp’s (TSE:LAC) (NYSE:LAC) Thacker Pass Lithium Project.
The project area hosts lithium bearing claystones that outcrop most of the 4-kilometre by 5-kilometre project area with thicknesses of up to 67 metres from surface.
Assay results of up to 3020ppm lithium were returned from composite channel samples, auger and shallow core drilling with some of the highest grades returning thicknesses of 50 metres and greater.
A US geological survey included lithium in its June 2018 list of minerals critical to the US economic and national security.
Key points from the submission include:
The US is currently unprepared for the rapid growth in demand for Lithium chemicals and battery materials with 92% of lithium chemicals imported in 2018;
There is the potential for the US to develop its own supplies of domestic lithium; and
The rate of funding to build new lithium mines and downstream processing needs to double
Ongoing work program
A review of historic and current lithium leaching test work at Mcdermitt has been completed and an initial leach test work utilising sulphuric acid is underway.
A range of parameters will be tested as the basis for further optimisation work to follow.
Reverse circulation drilling is planned to begin in May-June 2019 to rapidly test the broad areas of the project.
The aim of the drilling is to locate higher grade zones, support resource estimation work, extend existing mineralised zones at depth and test for further mineralised zones below the limit of current drilling.
- Jessica Cummins