Lightning Minerals Ltd is stepping up exploration at the Dundas Project in a lithium-rich region of Western Australia with an infill soil sampling program underway at Dundas South.
The program on tenements E63/2000 and E63/1993 is designed to follow up positive geochemical results that identified an 8 square kilometres lithium-in-soil anomaly up to 218ppm lithium as well as to further refine drill targets.
There will be around 1,500 samples collected and this program will increase the sampling density to around 200 x 200 metres, and to 100 x 100 metres in higher priority areas.
Along with the sampling, the company is continuing exploration drilling on tenement E63/2001 where multiple pegmatites have been intersected under alluvial cover.
“Accelerating strategy”
Lightning Minerals chief executive officer Alex Biggs said, “Following the excellent results from our first-pass soil sampling campaign at Dundas, multiple lithium anomalies have been identified across our tenements.
"As well as our drilling activities on our E63/2001 tenement, which are yielding success, the lithium anomaly identified on E63/2000 has been a priority for us to follow up on.
"The proximity to a known lithium resource, strong assay results and lithological setting presents an excellent opportunity for us to define some high-quality drill targets.
"We are accelerating our exploration strategy across the Dundas region and we look forward to keeping the market informed of our progress.”
Location of Lightning Minerals’ Dundas Projects.
Assessing anomaly
Previous geochemical results in E63/2000 and E63/1993 identified a broad, moderate to high tenor lithium-in-soil geochemical anomaly over an approximate 3.5 x 2.4-kilometre area.
The broad and consistent tenor of the anomalism is considered a positive indicator given the resolution of the sampling grid at 400-metre centres.
Within the anomalous zone, five samples returned lithium values of more than 150ppm lithium, with a peak result of 218ppm.
Lithium in soil geochemical results within E63/2000 and E63/1993, shown on Analytic Signal Total Magnetic Intensity geophysical image.
These sites are within a clustered zone near the centre of the anomaly with a closer-spaced soil sampling program required to identify a starting point for exploration drilling.
Sampling strategy
The strategy for the upcoming soil sampling is to infill the current areas of interest. with the aim to provide a more targeted area for the start of drilling.
This will provide the company with a higher resolution of results which will feed directly into follow-up exploration drilling.
It is important to provide a hierarchy of drill targets to increase the chance of drilling success particularly as the tenements have a degree of alluvial cover.
This is seen as an opportunity as demonstrated by the company’s recent successful drilling on tenement E63/2001 where multiple pegmatites have been intersected under alluvial cover.
Further infill sampling is proposed and being assessed on the company’s other Dundas tenements with the plan to delineate multiple high-quality drill targets.
A comprehensive targeting exercise using the results of the sampling program will be utilised to extract maximum value from the 62-element suite of analytes provided by the UFF+ analytical technique.
The review will include all applicable prospective commodities for the Dundas Projects including lithium, rare earth elements (REE), gold, copper, nickel and platinum group elements (PGE).
About Dundas Project
The Dundas Project area is near Norseman and comprises eight tenements totalling about 454 square kilometres.
Historically, Norseman and the Dundas area has experienced mining in gold and nickel although over recent years the region has become an emerging lithium and critical minerals province with multiple discoveries and significant exploration activity.
There are two project areas at Dundas: