Future Battery Minerals (ASX: FBM) is hopping into a new 3000m reverse-circulation (RC) drill program to test for a northern extension to its coveted Kangaroo Hills lithium project in Western Australia after receiving a highly-anticipated program-of-works approval.
The project that sits about 17km south of the WA Goldfields town of Coolgardie has already seen a string of impressive drill hits. Management says it expects to start drilling again in the coming days having secured all necessary approvals for the work, in addition to exploring what it says is massive potential at its Kangaroo Hills lithium project (KHLP).
The program is designed to help grow and extend the project’s lithium mineralisation with a view to evaluating just how big it can become.
The company says it will begin by testing interpreted shallow, thick and high-grade extensions to its Big Red deposit, in addition to drill scout testing of other northern target areas such as Quokka, Western Grey and Big Red West.
Kangaroo Hills offers so many project commercialisation advantages given its excellent location in the WA Goldfields, available road access and proximity to substantial existing regional infrastructure. It is also surrounded by other substantial lithium deposits and mines that offer a ready perspective on what it might become as a future project development.
Future Battery Minerals managing director Nicholas Rathjen
The Big Red deposit includes previous head-turning drill hits such as 29m at 1.36 per cent lithium oxide from 38m, 27m going 1.32 per cent from 64m, 22m at 1.24 per cent from 23m and 23m going 1.19 per cent lithium oxide.
Future Battery says it will be testing an area north of the standout drill results and will also focus on a slew of other targets highlighted by recent resistivity results. A recent induced-polarisation (IP) resistivity survey delineated several new anomalies, including one to the west dubbed Big Red West and a target to the north-west, now called Whip Tail.
The company says the survey helped extend and refine its pre-existing targets, Western Grey and Quokka, that were coincident with mapped pegmatites. It also identified two resistivity anomalies to the north of Big Red, extending the target area by 2.2km, with the company naming the new area Big Red North.
Future Battery says extending the Big Red system is the focus of the new program, with the Big Red North and Whip Tail anomalous targets to be tested in the following drill campaign.
While previously drilling for nickel at its Nepean nickel project, the company says it discovered mineralised lithium pegmatities late in 2022. Intriguingly, several of the pegmatites, in addition to further untested outcropping pegmatites, are found within or on the boundary of the Big Red West resistivity target area.
The KHLP is some 30km west of Mineral Resources’ highly-successful Mt Marion project that holds 60.5 million tonnes at 1.36 per cent lithium oxide. The KHLP is also in close proximity to several other lithium mines.
Future Battery also has a promising lithium play in Nevada in the United States and two strategically-located nickel-sulphide operations in WA’s Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt.
The company’s stellar Big Red drill hits, combined with an abundance of targets that would make a shooting-range jealous, could really turbocharge the project if further success comes with the spinning of the drill bit.
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