Alchemy Resources Ltd (ASX:ALY) has demonstrated the lithium potential of its Karonie Project in Western Australia, having mapped several more lithium-prospective outcropping pegmatite clusters at the Cherry, Hickory and Pecan prospects.
All three prospects sit within Alchemy’s interpreted ‘goldilocks’ zone, a defined area prospective for lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites, within a greenstone belt.
Pegmatite clusters were initially mapped over a 7-kilometre by 1.5-kilometre area on the West Australian project, with individual prospects measuring 400 metres of strike for the Pecan prospect, and 1.5-kilometres by 2-kilometres of strike length for the Cherry and Hickory prospects.
Rock chip assays have returned encouraging pathfinder elements, with rubidium grades up to 5,889 parts per million (ppm), tantalum up to 122 ppm and caesium up to 221 ppm.
Alchemy has interpreted these results to indicate the pegmatites are fractionated and highly evolved over the entire 7 kilometres of strike, indicating they are likely to have higher spodumene concentrations.
“We are exploring in exactly the right spot”
“The mapping has now identified a cluster of pegmatites at Karonie,” Alchemy Resources CEO James Wilson said.
“At Hickory and Cherry, we’ve doubled the strike length of mapped pegmatites and at Pecan we’ve discovered multiple pegmatite outcrops across a 1-kilometre-wide area.
“We expect the infill soils will zero in on zones which sit under the thin surface cover, and this will help us plan the next steps.
“The rock-chip assays are all showing very high tenor pathfinder anomalism which plots within the highly evolved and fractionated granite chemistry, telling us that we are exploring in exactly the right spot.
“Our next steps will be the commencement of infill soils and detailed structural mapping due to start imminently to zero in on target zones for drilling later this year.”
Alchemy is planning to conduct a large infill soil geochemistry program in late May, and a regional soils program to begin in parallel at the same time.