Reconnaissance fieldwork by Iondrive Ltd (ASX:ION) and joint venture partner KoBold Metals Company at lithium projects in South Korea has returned rock chips grading up to 0.43% lithium oxide at Samgeun and 0.35% lithium oxide at Danyang.
After pausing for winter weather, fieldwork recommenced in March across the lithium JV projects with a comprehensive exploration program planned to the end of June across all projects.
KoBold Metals earn-in & JV
Iondrive secured an earn-in and joint venture agreement last November with Kobold on Iondrive’s Samgeun, Seobyeok, Danyang, Seosan and Cheongpyeong lithium exploration projects.
The earn-in and JV agreement was secured following first-pass regional fieldwork across these projects and the subsequent release of exploration results from initial exploration.
KoBold lithium Joint Venture projects and 100%-owned ION lithium projects.
Fieldwork
Under the agreement, reconnaissance exploration commenced in late November and was conducted over two weeks before winter.
Four KoBold staff and two KMR geologists undertook reconnaissance exploration at the Samgeun, Seobyeok and Danyang projects with 169 rock chip samples and 9 stream-sediment samples collected and analysed at ALS Geochemistry in Perth
There were 74 rock chip samples taken at Samgeun with 10 samples returning grades over 400 ppm lithium oxide. The highest grade from samples returned up to 0.43% ppm lithium oxide from schist intercalated with granite.
A total of 72 pegmatite, granite and schist rock-chip samples were collected at Seobyeok. Two samples contained more than >400 ppm Li2O. Fieldwork confirmed that historical 1:50,000 KIGAM mapping is broadly accurate, including the presence of mapped pegmatite dikes up to 20 metres wide.
At Danyang, fieldwork identified three NE-SW trending aplite dikes in the central northwest portion of the project. These dikes comprise a white, fine-grained, feldspar-rich groundmass with scattered, fine-grained, dark mica grains.
In total, 23 samples were taken from the aplite dikes and surrounding metasediments and granites in the Danyang project area. Nine samples reported >600 ppm lithium oxide, with one aplite sample having the highest grade of 0.35% lithium oxide.
Exploration continues
Comprehensive exploration is underway, including an extensive program of regional stream-sediment and rock-chip sampling, comprising an estimated 270-person days of fieldwork conducted by two ION field teams.
The objective of the program is to complete regional stream-sediment sampling across all the lithium JV projects in order to identify the most prospective catchments for subsequent focused fieldwork to identify lithium-bearing pegmatite dikes and host rocks.
Additional work programs may include heavy mineral characterisation from stream-sediment samples within prospective project areas, source granite geochemical characterisation and geochronology analysis to enhance geologic understanding of large-scale controls of the formation of lithium-bearing lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites and lithium-enriched granites and basement units, and vectoring towards LCT targets.
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