Bradda Head Lithium Ltd (AIM:BHL, OTCQB:BHL) is halfway through its sonic drilling programme at its Wikieup asset in Central Arizona.
Drilling contractor Boart Longyear has so far drilled 14 holes for 1,520 metres out of a planned total of 28 holes or 2,560 metres.
After completion of this programme at Wikieup, Bradda will have drilled on roughly seven square kilometres of its ground, or around 15% of the company's 47 square kilometres of sedimentary claims in Arizona.
A maiden resource from Wikiuep is likely to be released in the second quarter of 2022.
"We are delighted with the progress of the larger Wikieup drilling programme, which so far has shown to be more time-efficient than the Basin East programme, despite unavoidable staff shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Charles FitzRoy, chief executive of Bradda Head.
“This also reinforces our confidence in the work of Boart Longyear and the Bradda Head operations team on the ground in Arizona. The maiden resource from Wikieup is due in Q2 and will add to our growing resource numbers. The resource update from Basin East is due in Q1, and we expect the upgrade to be significantly larger than the current JORC resource of 185,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.”
Boart Longyear has extensive experience using sonic rigs and drilling in clay and in the United States. Sonic rigs are more environmentally sensitive compared to diamond rigs because they use less water, produce less waste and have superior recovery compared to reverse circulation drilling.