Intra Energy Corporation Ltd (ASX:IEC) has outlined a lithium, caesium and tantalum (LCT) enriched zone at the Maggie Hays Hill Project in Western Australia, stretching over more than 2 kilometres.
Reconnaissance drilling over this area produced associated niobium grades of up to 499 parts per million (ppm) and up to 788 ppm tantalum.
The company’s drilling efforts also identified a new gold system on the project, although ultimately IEC has determined that economic extraction is unlikely and has no plans to complete further work in the area.
Closing in on core of lithium system
“The drilling program has identified a large lithium system with exceptional grades of niobium and tantalum in places,” Intra Energy Corp principal geologist Todd Hibberd said.
“We are in the right place and while we have not located the core of the lithium system, we are very close.
“We have only tested a small number of accessible targets and there are a multitude of additional targets to the west, east and north with high lithium, caesium and tantalum results.”
IEC says the distribution of lithium grades and pathfinder elements at Maggie Hays Hill points to a large LCT system – the company has yet to find the centre of the system requiring further geochemical work.
Multiple lithium targets remain untested on the project as well; to the west and north there are large, coherent LCT-enriched geochemical zones and to the east there is an extensive swarm of pegmatite dykes that remain untested.
The company’s next steps will focus on using geochemical trends to vector in on the centre of the LCT system before results can inform more reconnaissance drilling.