Corazon Mining Ltd (ASX:CZN) has found a lithium-bearing pegmatite in an old trench at the Miriam Nickel Sulphide Project in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.
Field mapping during initial site reconnaissance uncovered widespread indications of pegmatite throughout the project, including an outcrop hosting abundant large spodumene crystals, in an area never mined for lithium.
At surface, the pegmatite is weathered and the spodumene is greyish-green in colour and partially replaced by albite and ultrafine muscovite.
In fresh pegmatite samples, the spodumene is unaltered, yellowish white in natural light and reveals an orange luminescence under long wavelength UV light.
The spodumene crystals are around 1.5-3 centimetres in width and up to 40 centimetres in length in observed samples.
The identification of spodumene has been verified using Raman Spectroscopy.
Though the extent of the pegmatite is yet to be defined, there is abundant pegmatitic ‘float’ material throughout the project area.
Samples of the mineralised pegmatite have been submitted for laboratory analysis.
Corazon has applied for the Miriam tenements and expects them to be granted shortly.
What's next?
The company plans to begin targeted and systematic on-ground exploration once the tenure has been approved.
Works will include exploration to confirm the extent of the lithium mineralisation within the project area, in tandem with the aggressive nickel sulphide exploration program previously proposed.
The recently acquired Miriam Project is host to the undeveloped Miriam nickel-sulphide deposit, discovered in 1969. It is around 10 kilometres south-southwest of Coolgardie on an ultramafic trend, which also hosts Auroch Minerals’ Nepean Nickel Deposit.
No past lithium exploration has been conducted at Miriam, providing a potentially significant opportunity for Corazon.
About the Miriam Project
The project is on a trend of ultramafics and covers an area of about 6 kilometres by 1.5 kilometres.
The deposit was discovered in 1969 when Anaconda Australia Limited conducted most of the known nickel exploration during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
This work defined the core of the Miriam deposit over a strike of about 150 metres and to a depth of at least 150 metres below surface. In places, subsequent drilling extended the drilled depth to about 300 metres below surface.
Initial defining drill intersections for the deposit included 9.6 metres at 5.60% nickel, 12.5 metres at 0.56% nickel, 3.2 metres at 2.59% nickel, 0.9 metres at 5.57% nickel and 6.1 metres at 0.90% nickel.
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