St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ) has served up high-grade lithium during rock chip sampling at its flagship Mt Alexander Project in WA.
The explorer reported up to 2.7% lithium during the campaign, while also uncovering caesium, tantalum and rubidium — encouraging signs there may be significant lithium deposits at depth.
Some of the best results from the first batch of lab samples include:
- 1.97% lithium, 715 parts per million (ppm) caesium, 166ppm tantalum and 13,765ppm rubidium;
- 1.15% lithium, 211 ppm caesium, 51ppm tantalum and 5,825ppm rubidium;
- 1.68% lithium, 164ppm caesium, 104ppm tantalum and 7,700ppm rubidium; and
- 2.72% lithium, 756ppm caesium, 60ppm tantalum and 11,530ppm rubidium.
A closer look at Jailbreak
An ongoing field mapping program has extended the interpreted east-west strike of visible, lithium-bearing pegmatites at Jailbreak from 400 metres to 1.4 kilometres — up to a kilometre west of the current assay results.
More broadly, St George is working to understand the inherent lithium prospectively across the entire Mt Alexander property, where pegmatite samples have been collected on two exploration licences.
The company has completed soil sampling on the second, wholly-owned tenement, and the pending results could further expand the pegmatite area.
St George hopes to hit the ground running with a maiden lithium drilling campaign late this month or early next.
Exploring prospective corridor
St George chairman John Prineas said the company was delighted that its visual interpretation of lithium-bearing pegmatites was confirmed in the first batch of lab assays.
“The high-grade lithium assays are from pegmatite outcrops spread over a 1.7-kilometre zone at Jailbreak within a 15-kilometre-long interpreted lithium, caesium and tantalum corridor, where numerous pegmatites at Mt Alexander have been mapped to date,” he explained.
“The grades and scale we are seeing appear to confirm that we are exploring a highly prospective pegmatite-hosted lithium mineral system in its early stage of evaluation.
Famous neighbours
Prineas went on to explain that Mt Alexander wasn’t an island when it came to lithium prospectivity.
“Our lithium-bearing pegmatites are located in the same corridor parallel to the Copperfield Granite, where Red Dirt Metals has announced significant lithium discoveries and flagged a pending maiden mineral resource.
“Zenith Minerals has also announced the commencement of drilling of prospective pegmatites at its Mt Ida North Lithium Project, northeast of our lithium-bearing pegmatites.
“Further north of Mt Alexander, and also adjacent to the craton scale Mt Ida fault, is Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR)’ large Kathleen Valley lithium deposit, which has a mineral resource of 156 million tonnes at 1.4% lithium and 130 parts per million tantalum.
What’s next?
Looking ahead, Prineas concluded the project was in “a very good address”. He said the company was looking forward to its maiden lithium drill program later this quarter.
“The fast-emerging lithium potential at Mt Alexander perfectly complements our continued search for more high-grade nickel-copper-platinum group element sulphide discoveries, which will also involve a drill campaign this quarter,” he signed off.
Assays from more rock chip samples are expected in the coming weeks, which will help finalise the drill program.