Latin Resources Ltd (ASX:LRS) has highlighted the presence of a ‘major’ new pegmatite swarm, demonstrating the potential for resource growth at its Colina West Prospect within the Salinas Lithium Project in Brazil.
Assays from resource definition drilling have confirmed the presence of multiple thick high-grade pegmatites at Colina West, including:
- 26.87 metres at 1.62% lithium from 333.82 metres, including 23 metres at 1.78% from 335 metres;
- 28.87 metres at 1.29% from 283.13 metres; and
- 14.66 metres at 1.52% from 158.05 metres and 33.07 metres at 1.83% from 319.53 metres
What’s more, the company has decided to temporarily halt the current preliminary economic assessment (PEA) to incorporate the expanded mineral resource of the wider Colina area, which is expected to undergo an ‘incremental expansion’ in the upcoming MRE update.
“Material uplift” in resource
Latin geology manager Tony Greenaway said: “Our latest drilling and assay results have confirmed the presence of a major new pegmatite swarm at Colina West.
“We are seeing pegmatite intersections and grades at Colina West far in excess of those we have seen at Colina itself, which we anticipate will result in a material uplift in the overall mineral resource inventory for the project.
“In addition, we are seeing a convergence of Colina and Colina West with the development of a bridging pegmatite swarm between the two areas.
“We believe that we may in fact be dealing with one large system.
“Our resource definition drilling is well on track, with six diamond rigs moving in a line west from Colina and one diamond rig drilling the extension of the existing Colina resource model, with more rigs on the way.
“Our planned JORC resource upgrade, which is scheduled for June, will incorporate the down dip extensions of the existing Colina MRE, as well as bringing in the new pegmatite swarms to the west.
“We have paused the current PEA study which was focused only on our maiden MRE for Colina so that we can incorporate the June model update, as we believe this will result in a material change in the overall study metrics.”
Drill program
Latin is undertaking a 65,000-metre diamond drilling campaign, which will incorporate a total of eight diamond drill rigs for the 2023 field season.
Drilling will focus on resource definition at the company’s Colina deposit where a maiden mineral resource estimate was released in early December 2022.
In addition, the company is also conducting a systematic drill out of the area to the west of the Colina deposit, to enable the inclusion of this developing pegmatite system into the planned MRE update.