Azure Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZS) is accelerating assessment of the lithium potential at its Andover Project (Azure 60%, Creasy Group 40%) in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia.
With the help of helicopters, Azure has picked out numerous outcropping spodumene-rich pegmatites over up to 1,200 metres in strike length and up to 100 to 200 metres across.
On-ground lithium exploration also continues apace, including detailed mapping and sampling as the company prepares for its first lithium-specific drill program.
As soon as it receives approvals, Azure will hit the newly identified target zones with the diamond drill.
Multi-pronged campaign
To follow up a successful first-pass exploration program that identified widespread lithium-bearing pegmatites across the Andover Project, Azure has implemented a multi-pronged strategy to fast-track its lithium-focused exploration.
Nickel sulphide drilling continues at targets VC-30, VC-31 and VC-32 while the company is exploring the option of drilling pegmatites close to these nickel sulphide targets, where drilling approvals are already in.
During the helicopter-supported sampling program, the lithium-bearing mineral spodumene was observed in-situ in many pegmatite outcrops, especially proximal to and along strike from similar samples collected in Azure’s earlier reconnaissance programs.
These earlier programs gave Azure confidence in the lithium prospectivity of the area, returning lithium grades including 3.32%, 2.65%, 1.62%, 1.31%, 1.19% and 1.13%.
Coarse-grained spodumene crystals in pegmatite.
Several hundred outcropping pegmatites
The Andover pegmatite swarm contains several hundred outcropping pegmatites occurring in a zone around 8 kilometres long and 4 kilometres wide in the central and eastern parts of the project area.
The pegmatite bodies typically trend in a southwest to northeast orientation and are generally horizontal to shallow dipping.
Within historical mine workings, vertical exposures of the pegmatites demonstrate true thicknesses of more than 5 metres.
The strike of the pegmatites is roughly parallel with Azure’s richly endowed nickel-copper-cobalt Southern Mineralised Corridor, with most pegmatites lying within or adjacent to this mineralised horizon.