Future Battery Minerals has intercepted thick, near-surface stacked spodumene lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites while drilling within its Rocky and Big Red prospects that form part of the greater Kangaroo Hills lithium project.
The company today revealed assay results that included a headline hit of 22m at 1.24 per cent lithium oxide from 23m at Big Red.
Management also says its Rocky prospect, with the bulk of assays pending from recent drilling, has many shallow, but substantial intercepts of visual spodumene-bearing pegmatites that have significantly increased the scale of the system. Drilling has confirmed the Rocky pegmatites plunge below the Big Red pegmatite.
The best assay to date from Rocky has been 8m at 1.08 per cent lithium oxide from 40m. The company says its near-term focus of drilling at Rocky will be a diamond tail program to test the depth extension, thickening and grade of the host pegmatites.
Other early signs of encouragement have been observed from scout drilling at Wallaroo West, where thin pegmatites with lower grade lithium were noted. Upside potential for improved thicknesses and grades are postulated along strike and further drilling is planned to test pegmatites in the area.
Additional targets to the east of Wallaroo and Pademelon have turned up thick continuous pegmatites up to 46m and although of low grade, herald the potential for a significant pegmatite system in the area by identifying subsurface, or blind, pegmatites from resistivity-structural anomalies.
The initial set of assays from the recent reverse-circulation (RC) and diamond drilling (DD) program at Big Red and Rocky have delivered further excellent results and confirms the early visual spodumene observations of this emerging lithium-caesium-tantalum LCT pegmatite system. Future Battery Minerals technical director Robin Cox
The company is now waiting to be granted final environmental permitting so it can begin drilling north of Big Red, in addition to targeting other resistivity-structural anomalies such as Western Grey. One rig is still drilling with the dual objective of testing shallow strike extensions at Big Red and Rocky, while scout drilling is continuing at regional anomalies such as Wallaroo.
Assays are pending for 43 drillholes.
Each phase of drilling is inevitably improving Future Battery’s understanding of the distribution, thickness and grade variation of the LCT pegmatites in the Kangaroo Hills project, as it continues to surprise on the upside.
The company plans to have three rigs drilling next quarter to define the resources, with the announcement of a maiden mineral resource scheduled for the first quarter of next year. Metallurgical testwork with Minsol Engineering has also begun in a bid to investigate heavy liquid separation and froth flotation.
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