A second phase of reverse-circulation (RC) drilling at Future Battery Minerals’ Nevada project in the United States, just 45 kilometres from Albemarle’s well-known Silver Peak lithium mine, has successfully intersected thick lithium-bearing claystone, pointing to potential extensions of the company’s previously-identified lithium mineralisation.
Future Battery’s phase-two program follows the successful discovery of thick lithium-bearing claystone in the final hole of first-phase drilling at the Western Flats prospect in March this year. That hole delivered intersections of 109.7m at 766 parts per million lithium from 135.6m and 29m at 1010ppm lithium from a depth of 210.3m, while a further three holes at Western Flats also intersected thick high-grade lithium claystone.
The six holes sunk in the phase-two program were designed to test the prospective Siebert formation that hosts the lithium-bearing claystone unit, aiming to extend the known lithium claystone horizon intercepted during the earlier phase.
Management today confirmed that four of its six RC drill holes in the phase-two drilling program hit the Siebert formation at the project’s Western Flats and Lone Mountain prospects. The intercepts range from a significant 76m to 204m and are of similar thickness to those revealed in the phase-one discovery hole.
The four latest drill holes to successfully intercept the target horizon point to a potential extension of the lithium claystone across a strike running at least 3.7km north-east/south-west and 2.6km east-west, and which becomes shallower within the Lone Mountain prospect that lies to the south of Western Flats. It suggests a southerly trend to the formation, including a shallowing of the target horizon moving closer to surface.
Importantly, Future Battery says the potential extension to its headline phase-one drilling intercept remains open in multiple directions.
Phase-two assays have been submitted to the laboratory and are expected back in about a month. Meanwhile, the planning of a third phase of drilling is underway, with the program expected to begin this quarter.
In addition to the drilling at Western Flats and Lone Mountain, the company drilled three holes at its regional Heller Prospect. It says sequences of sediments and volcanics lithologies were intercepted but assay results are needed to determine the area’s prospectivity.
The work is all part of Future Battery’s plan to systematically test the five key prospects at its Nevada lithium project – Lone Mountain, Western Flats, Traction, San Antone and Heller. All up, the project spans more than 90 square kilometres of ground that is considered highly-prospective for bigger sedimentary-hosted lithium deposits.
The surrounding region in Nevada hosts several of those deposits, including Ioneer Resources’ Rhyolite Ridge project and American Lithium Corporation’s TLC lithium play. And that’s not forgetting that the only producing lithium mine in North America – Albemarle’s Silver Peak – is standing tall nearby.
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