St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ) has returned to the Mt Alexander Project in the Mt Ida region of Western Australia to continue lithium exploration, targeting several extensive pegmatite targets along a regional lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) corridor.
The company is employing soil sampling, pegmatite field mapping and outcrop sampling over two main targets.
The first is an 8-kilometre-long zone around the Manta prospect, where a 121-metre intersection of fractionated pegmatite was identified in drilling and the second a 4-kilometre-long zone at the Jailbreak prospect, where drilling hit pegmatite intersections of up to 1.8% lithium and rock chip samples returned up to 3.25% lithium.
First results from the laboratory are expected in four weeks.
Potential for large lithium system
“We are pleased that our field teams are back on the ground at Mt Alexander to follow up multiple target areas for lithium mineralisation,” St George Mining executive chair John Prineas said.
“Significantly, many of these prospects have a similar geological context to the Mt Ida lithium deposit, which is about 15 kilometres southeast of Mt Alexander.
“Our initial exploration at Mt Alexander has confirmed the presence of high-grade lithium as well as very thick pegmatites – up to 121 metres thick. These results support the potential for a large lithium-bearing pegmatite mineral system.
“Our fieldwork will provide further information on the zonation, thickness and distribution of pegmatites along the more than 16-kilometre stretch of the regional LCT corridor on our tenure.
Favourably positioned project
Mt Alexander enjoys a prime position along the contact between the Mt Alexander greenstone belt and the Copperfield Granite formation, part of a large LCT pegmatite corridor host to Delta Lithium’s 14.6 million tonnes at 1.2% lithium resource.
The project consists of seven contiguous exploration licences and one prospecting licence in an emerging lithium province being actively explored for the battery metal, including on the adjacent Mt Bevan Project, which is held in joint venture by Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd, Legacy Iron Ore and Hawthorn Resources (ASX:HAW).
“Mt Alexander is located in a very favourable position within the Mt Ida Lithium Province, which has fast emerged over the past 12 months as a lithium hot spot that has delivered material exploration success and attracted significant M&A activity,” Prineas continued.
“We are excited to be ramping up exploration at Mt Alexander with the support of some of the most important global companies in lithium-ion batteries – ATL, Shanghai Jayson, Sunwoda Electronic and SVOLT – and look forward to reporting exploration results in the coming weeks.”