Kula Gold has snagged wide intersections of pegmatites in a maiden hole at its Mustang prospect, 20km west of Talison Lithium’s Greenbushes mine – one of the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium operations.
Four intervals ranging from 2m to 9m wide were intersected during drilling and contained quartz-feldspar-biotite pegmatite likely to host lithium minerals. Samples have been sent for assay and drilling will recommence when the results are known.
It is worth noting that it is the first hole through the Mustang prospect, which Kula believes is up to 100m wide and has a whopping 1km strike length. Mustang is one of many prospects within the company’s Kirup lithium project where previous assays from rock-chip samples have provided indications of wide, multi-bodied and locally-fractionated pegmatite systems that have the potential to host lithium mineralisation.
It is fantastic to have commenced our reconnaissance drilling program at Kirup with the first phase at the Mustang Lithium Prospect. The combination of some very encouraging outcrop, geochemistry and geophysics warrants subsurface drilling. Kula Gold chief executive officer Ric Dawson
Kirup covers 117 square kilometres and sits about 20km to the west of the world-class Greenbushes mine, which is a structurally-controlled lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite of Archaean age.
It complements Kula’s other lithium project, Brunswick, which is 20km to the north, and both projects are within greenstones terranes in the south-west of the Yilgarn Craton.
The terrane is considered prospective, greenstone-hosted gold mineralisation, epithermal gold mineralisation and Julimar-style copper-nickel-platinum group elements mineralisation.
The Greenbushes deposit is recognised as boasting the world’s highest grade of lithium from spodumene in pegmatites. Its output accounts for about 22 per cent of the global lithium market and it produces nearly 2 million tonnes of lithium spodumene, annually.
Kula’s drilling program has been temporarily suspended due to unfavourable ground conditions, but it is confident the work will be back on track in a few weeks.
The rig is now heading to the company’s joint venture Rankin Dome project near Southern Cross, where operating partner Australian Critical Minerals is managing the maiden reverse-circulation (RC) drill program aimed at rare earths and lithium from targets generated last year.
Further work planned by Kula in the area includes geological mapping, and systematic rock-chip sampling of the pegmatitic outcrop on the Kirup project, while follow-up RC drilling is planned upon more favourable surface conditions if assays confirm anomalous LCT or gold.
Management has also scheduled RC drilling at its Cobra Prospect before the end of this year.
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