Jindalee Resources Limited (ASX:JRL) has started a diamond drilling program at the Clayton North Lithium Project in Nevada, one of its two 100%-owned lithium projects in the USA.
The program is designed to follow up anomalous lithium results from surface sampling undertaken by Jindalee in 2018 from which results of up to 930ppm lithium were detected at the surface.
Clayton North is just 22 kilometres north of Albemarle Corporation’s (NYSE:ALB) Silver Peak lithium brine operation, which is the only producing lithium mining operation in the US.
Lithium-bearing sediments
Jindalee’s Clayton North area hosts lithium-bearing sediments of the Tertiary Esmeralda Formation.
The unit outcrops in the southeast of the claim and is interpreted to strike northwest under thin cover.
A combination of auger and composited rock chip samples were taken at the Clayton North Project, confirming sediment-hosted lithium mineralisation in weathered surface materials.
Notably, this will be the first time the project potential will be tested by drilling.
Up to 12 drill holes have been approved on the exploration permit to test the thickness of the cover and the lithium-bearing sediments, with the final number of holes dependent on visual results in the field.
Drilling is expected to take about three weeks with first assays anticipated by early October 2021
McDermitt operations on track
The discovery of extensive mineralisation in the first drill program at the McDermitt Project in Oregon in 2018 has seen Jindalee focus on resource definition activities at the project.
In April this year, the company reported an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 1.43 billion tonnes at 1,320ppm lithium for a total of 10.1 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) at a 1,000ppm lithium cut-off grade.
At present studies and drill permitting are ongoing and on-track at McDermitt, with no significant delays expected.
Furthermore, all elements of the technical study are coming together with several options being considered for the flowsheet by the process engineering team.
- Ephrems Joseph