Sipa Resources Ltd (ASX:SRI) is preparing to drill-test lithium targets at the 100%-owned Skeleton Rocks Project in Western Australia’s Goldfields after securing all necessary approvals and a reverse circulation (RC) drill rig.
Targets have been generated from an aircore drill program conducted in March 2022 which confirmed the existence of anomalous lithium in previously untested greenstone units.
Subsequent analysis and reviews of the complete data set, both internally and via external consultants, highlighted areas of elevated lithium and other pegmatite-associated elements including caesium and rubidium.
Near other operations
Sipa Resources managing director Pip Darvall said: “Skeleton Rocks is a great location to hunt for lithium with major groups operating nearby, and we are eager to get this drill program started.
“Our aircore program earlier in the year was the first drilling ever completed in this area, offering plenty of opportunity for a discovery.”
Sipa’s Skeleton Rocks project showing the location of the area to be drilled in red.
The review found that the elevated levels of elements form coherent halos of 4-5 times background levels on the margins of the greenstone units, often in association with quartz veining.
These anomalous results are consistent with the geochemical ‘halo’ to lithium mineralisation and may indicate the presence of nearby lithium-bearing pegmatites.
Follow-up RC program
They will be tested via a follow-up drill program commencing in the coming days with the planned RC program to comprise a series of deeper holes angled directly under the geochemical anomalies.
Skeleton Rocks is strategically located between the Great Eastern Highway and the Mt Holland Lithium Project being developed as part of a joint venture between Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) and Chilean mining major Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA (SQM).