Belmont Resources Inc (TSX-V:BEA) said its joint venture partner Marquee Resources has issued an exploration update on the Lone Star Copper/Gold Project and the Kibby Basin Lithium Project.
At Lone Star, the phase one drilling program, which included 46 diamond drill holes for 7,888 meters, has been completed. The final batch of assays is expected to be received by the company shortly.
The three goals of the program were as follows: validate the historical drill hole database and resource model; deliver a JORC/43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate; and test for extensions to the historical resource.
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Mining Plus Pty Ltd has continued resource modeling studies and following its site visit the company awaits receipt of the final outstanding assays.
Meanwhile, the three-hole (3,000 m) drill program at the Kibby Basin Lithium Project is now expected to be completed by October 2022 after some delays, according to a statement.
The company acknowledges that drilling thus far has been “extremely slow and frustrating to date” but reiterated that the overall potential of the project remains unchanged.
Essentially, despite casing hole KB22-01 to 1,060 feet, playa sediments have made drilling with the current Aircore drill rig too difficult to continue. A decision has been made with drill operator Drill NV to switch out to a more conventional core drill rig to complete the remainder of hole one as well as the next two holes planned for this program.
A new contract has been entered into with Drill NV, but despite the loss of time on hole one, the cost of the overall program is unchanged.
The objective of that drill program is to delineate a lithium-enriched brine aquifer deposit in Kibby Basin, Nevada that is amenable to mining using wells to extract brine for processing into a saleable lithium hydroxide monohydrate product, the company said.
The target is a potential lithium-enriched aquifer at an estimated 800-1,000 m depth.
In November 2021, Belmont announced an option/joint venture agreement with Marquee Resources for the Kibby Playa Block, one of five claim blocks owned by Belmont on the Kibby Basin.
The agreement terms are for Marquee to issue Belmont C$100,000 in cash upon signing, issue 3,000,000 Marquee shares, and incur C$2.5 million in exploration expenditures within 15 months of signing in order to earn up to an 80% interest in the Kibby Playa claim block.
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