Latin Resources Ltd (ASX:LRS) has encountered thick sections of exceptionally bright kaolinised granite during resource infill drilling at the Cloud Nine Halloysite-Kaolin deposit in Western Australia.
Some of the program’s best hits include:
- 43 metres at 85.4 ISO‐B from 7 metres;
- 38 metres at 85.3 ISO‐B from 12 metres;
- 25 metres at 85.2 ISO‐B from 17 metres; and
- 21 metres at 85.2 ISO‐B from 6 metres.
Latin has also completed geotechnical drilling to facilitate bulk density determination — a vital step towards updating the Cloud Nine JORC resource.
In the meantime, the kaolin and lithium explorer has kicked off a permitting and approvals process: it’s seeking the greenlight to excavate a trial mining test‐pit at Cloud Nine.
The deposit's current inferred resource stands at 207 million tonnes of kaolinised granite, including a 50-million-tonne sub-domain grading at 6% halloysite.
Those numbers position the property as one of the largest underdeveloped kaolin-halloysite deposits in Australia.
“World-class” kaolin deposit
Latin exploration manager Tony Greenaway said today: “It is an exciting time for the Cloud Nine Project, with our team busy steadily progressing the project through the pre‐feasibility study.
“The latest results for the kaolin brightness have continued to reaffirm that the Cloud Nine Project is a world-class kaolin deposit.
“The upgrading of the JORC kaolin resource, and the collection of the bulk kaolin samples, are both significant milestones for the project, and will allow the company to progress further toward the potential development of its first mining operation.”
Infill drilling
To date, nearly two-thirds of the composites from the Cloud Nine infill drilling program have been analysed for brightness, with the remaining results expected towards the end of July.
Drilling thus far has returned material, near-surface thicknesses of kaolinised granite with brightness values above 85 ISO‐B.
All up, 66% of the drill holes analysed so far returned results above 80 ISO‐B, with select significant results returning greater than 85 ISO‐B including:
Regional aeromagnetic survey
Latin has also engaged Southern Geoscience Consultants (SGC) to manage a high-detail airborne magnetic and radiometric survey covering the company’s extensive regional tenement package.
The regional survey will help define further exploration targets along almost 105 kilometres of prospective tenure and comprises more than 13,800 line kilometres on 50-metre spaced east-west lines.
SGC will also purchase and process the Sentinel‐2 hyperspectral satellite data over the Noombenberry tenement package to identify potential surface expressions similar to the Cloud Nine Halloysite‐Kaolin Deposit.
The Sentinel‐2 satellite-based imaging system is a similar but more recent version of the LandSat systems, which are widely used for hyperspectral satellite‐based imaging.
Aeromagnetic contractor, Mag‐Spec Airborne Surveys, hopes to complete the data capture component a fortnight after the program kicks off.
From here, data processing, including a structural interpretation and hyperspectral processing of the satellite data, should be completed next quarter.
Digital elevation data will be collected as part of the survey, which can be used in future scoping studies and will circumvent the need for further downhole electromagnetic surveys, reducing costs considerably.
Technical studies and project permitting
In parallel with resource estimation work at Cloud Nine, Latin has started the permitting and approvals process to facilitate the mine's development.
This involves:
- Submitting a program of work application under the company’s current exploration licence to the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety to enable the excavation of a trial mining test pit at Cloud Nine;
- applications to convert the current exploration licence to a full mining licence; and
- scheduling to start baseline environmental studies.
Kaolinite extracted from the test pit will be used in bulk scale metallurgical testing.
Importantly, this will be used to prepare bulk product samples, which will be sent to potential offtakers to undertake their own product qualification testing.
So far, Latin has provided small‐scale samples from Cloud Nine to two parties.
Preliminary discussions with both groups have included options to supply short-term direct shipping ore products, as well as supplying value‐added processed kaolinite and halloysite products in the longer term.