St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ) has kicked off reverse circulation (RC) drilling of numerous widespread pegmatite dykes for lithium, its first focusing on the in-demand battery metal at the flagship Mt Alexander Project in Western Australia.
The initial focus is on the Jailbreak prospects, where 20 RC holes for about 2,000 metres are planned to confirm the continuity of up to 20 metres thick lithium-bearing outcropping pegmatites below surface.
Drill targets include pegmatites where laboratory assays from surface rock chips taken from a widespread area with a north-south trend of 1.7 kilometres and east-west strike up to 1.4 kilometres returned high-grade values up to 2.72% Li2O.
Jailbreak Prospect showing pegmatite outcrops, rock chip sample locations and planned drill hole collars.
Potential discovery
St George executive chairman John Prineas said: “This is an exciting milestone for St George as we commence the first-ever, lithium-focused drill program at Mt Alexander. This initial phase of drilling will provide St George with an opportunity to potentially make a greenfields discovery within what is emerging as a significant lithium province.
“Prospective pegmatites have been mapped over a wide area within a north-south corridor adjacent to the Copperfield Granite and extending approximately 15 kilometres along St George’s tenements.
“This scale, together with the grades we are seeing in the outcrops sampled to date, provides encouragement for the potential for a large lithium system at Mt Alexander.”
Nickel search
In addition to the RC program, about 1,500 metres of diamond drilling is planned to test new nickel targets in the Manta Prospect area. A diamond rig is due to arrive in the first week of November.
“Once the diamond rig arrives in coming weeks, we will incorporate the results from the RC drilling to prioritise diamond hole follow-ups – alongside testing some of our priority nickel targets," Prineas said.
“It promises to be an exciting end to 2022 for St George and our shareholders.”
In total, St George is planning 3,500 metres of combined RC and diamond drilling throughout November in the initial phase.
Laboratory assays are expected to be progressively available within four to five weeks.
Fertile grounds
The outcropping pegmatite dykes at Mt Alexander have a similar geological setting to the significant pegmatite-hosted lithium discovered by Red Dirt at its Mt Ida Project, around 15 kilometres south of Mt Alexander in an emerging new lithium province.
Apart from lithium, assays from rock chip samples from the Jailbreak pegmatites returned up to 715 parts per million (ppm) caesium, 166 ppm tantalum pentoxide and 1.37% rubidium.
The Mt Alexander Project is 120 kilometres southwest of the Agnew-Wiluna Belt, which hosts numerous world-class nickel deposits.
St George has six exploration licences here, which are a contiguous package, and an additional two licences to the southeast of the core tenement package.
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