Lightning Minerals Ltd (ASX:L1M) has uncovered multiple pegmatites under alluvial cover at its wholly-owned Dundas lithium camp in Western Australia.
The explorer’s maiden aircore drilling program, which took place just a stone’s throw from Liontown Resources Ltd’s Buldania/Anna lithium deposit, intersected up to 20 metres of pegmatite mineralisation and proved up Dundas’ exploration prospects.
Big-picture, the early-stage findings endorse Lightning’s decision to target multiple lithium-rubidium soil anomalies, which were announced to the market at the start of this year.
Drilling continues at Dundas, with roughly a quarter of the explorer’s aircore program now complete.
“Excellent early-stage results”
Lightning Minerals CEO Alex Biggs said, “We are very pleased to have exploration success so early in our campaign at Dundas given the inclement weather we have experienced and overcome.
“We are targeting an interpreted northwest to southeast pegmatite trend along which we see other operators in the region having similar success.
“Our inaugural drill campaign has thus far provided some excellent early-stage results. The company has multiple lithium targets across several of our leases at Dundas to follow up on as we accelerate our exploration campaign across the region.
“We wanted to provide an interim update to the market regarding drilling and look forward to providing further results as the program progresses”.
Rounding up results
Some of the best initial pegmatite hits from aircore drilling at Dundas’ E63/2001 tenement include:
- 20 metres in hole DSAC0033 from 31 metres, with end of hole (EOH) ending in pegmatite;
- 12 metres in hole DSAC0006 from 9 metres, with EOH ending in pegmatite;
- 11 metres in hole DSAC0010 from 34 metres downhole;
- 9 metres in hole DSAC0034 from 22 metres with EOH ending in pegmatite; and
- 7 metres in hole DSAC0012 from 9 metres downhole.
The pegmatites intersected at the end of hole are open, meaning Lightning has an opportunity to determine their true thickness, potential coalescence and trend extent through follow-up drilling.
In addition, reverse circulation (RC) drilling has encountered pegmatites in eight of 14 holes drilled to E63/2001’s north.
These intersections will be submitted for follow-up spectrographic work — further interpretation is needed to determine the relationship between the RC pegmatites and the cross-cutting Jimberlana Dyke.
Next up
Beyond the E63/2001 tenement, an infill soil sampling campaign is in the final planning stages as Lightning works to further delineate an 8-square-kilometre lithium in-soil anomaly that’s yielded up to 218 parts per million lithium.
The program should kick off in the coming weeks on Dundas’ E63/2000 and E63/1993.
Lightning is also weighing its exploration path for the Dundas North Project, with the works approval process well underway.
And the company hasn’t forgotten about its Mt Jewell and Mailman Hill projects; it’s moving forward with work programs early into FY24.