Dart Mining says it has opened a new exploration frontier at its Dorchap lithium project in Victoria, with all five holes from a new diamond drilling campaign hitting elevated levels of lithium mineralisation.
The company received significant results from two holes drilled at its Boone’s dyke target, which is one of five pegmatite dykes tested during the phase-one campaign. Dart is the first to drill lithium-prospective pegmatites within Victoria and its project is backed by Chilean mining giant Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM).
Its latest assay highlights show one hole at Boone’s dyke returning a 10m hit grading 1.08 per cent lithium oxide from 313m, including a 7m intercept running a solid 1.38 per cent lithium oxide from 315m. The second hole at the target showed a 2m section grading 1.07 per cent lithium oxide from 302m, including a 1m segment also at 1.38 per cent lithium oxide from 303m.
Initial results from the first three holes of the campaign include 0.81m going 1.2 per cent lithium from 111m and 0.62m grading 1.63 per cent from 80m. Sampling and logging of pegmatite intersections in the remaining seven drillholes of the 12-hole phase-one program is complete and further assay results are expected within the next four to six weeks.
The outstanding results from Holes 9 and 10 confirm the growing potential of the Dorchap Dyke swarm as an exciting new region for lithium exploration. The width and grades intersected are very solid and adds further to Dart’s cumulative knowledge of the Dorchap Lithium project. Dart Mining chairman James Chirnside
The company first identified the lithium prospectivity of the region in 2016 by assaying historically unanalysed samples from the Dorchap Range, returning results of up to 1.57 per cent lithium oxide. It marked the first recorded lithium pegmatites in Victoria.
The Dorchap lithium project exploration is fully-funded by an earn-in joint venture agreement with SQM, which has the right to sole-fund exploration expenditure to the tune of $12 million in the next six years.
The earn-in is comprised of three key periods, the first of which is characterised by SQM’s ability to earn a 30 per cent interest by sole-funding exploration expenditure with $3 million during the next three years. SQM may then opt to sole-fund another $9 million in two additional periods, totalling three years to gain a supplementary 40 per cent stake.
Previous extensive regional sampling by Dart resolved a 20km-long and 12km-wide zone of highly-fractionated pegmatites bearing enriched lithium, caesium, tantalum, beryllium and tin mineralisation. The company completed grab and channel samples that returned rock-chip results of up to 1.57 per cent lithium oxide near Glen Wills in the south, in addition to Dorchap Range channel samples with 10m grading 1.38 per cent lithium oxide and 10m going 1.22 per cent lithium oxide. One grab sample returned an incredibly-high tin assay of 9.98 per cent.
With more assays from its phase-one diamond campaign still to come, Dart will be hoping its next results hit the bullseye as it remains the only company in Victoria to return lithium hits from a diamond drill campaign in the State.
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