Emerging Australian lithium developer Core Lithium (ASX: CXO) says it has discovered a new spodumene pegmatite body adjacent to the existing Mineral Resource at its Carlton deposit, a component of its Finniss lithium project near Darwin. Diamond drilling at the deposit unexpectedly hit another 26m intersection of spodumene pegmatite just 15m to the west of the defined Mineral Resource.
Emerging Australian lithium developer, Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) (“Core” or the “Company”), is pleased to announce that a new spodumene pegmatite body has been discovered adjacent to the current Carlton Lithium Mineral Resource, which is a component of the Company’s wholly-owned Finniss Lithium Project (“Finniss”), located near Darwin in the Northern Territory.
In addition to the expected 27m pegmatite intersection of the Carlton orebody, recently completed diamond drilling at the deposit unexpectedly intersected another 26m intersection of spodumene pegmatite just 15m to the west of the currently defined Mineral Resource.
To date, most of the drilling at Carlton has been from the east, and as this pegmatite body had not been previously recognised, the previous up-dip drill holes of the new intersection ended before they could potentially intersect the interpreted shallow extensions of this new spodumene pegmatite body. The new western pegmatite has not been intersected along strike yet in other drill holes at Carlton, so additional drilling is planned at Carlton to test extension of this newly discovered pegmatite as well as further resource drilling early in the 2019 field (dry) season mid-Q2 2019.
The spodumene pegmatite in the Carlton “western pegmatite” is visually quite similar to the high-quality spodumene mineralisation observed nearby at the Grants and BP33 lithium Mineral Resources. The Carlton deposit is located approximately 1km southeast of the Grants ore body and conveniently on the same recently granted Mineral Lease. A number of potential operational synergies and efficiencies may be gained from development of the nearby orebodies.
Core is currently completing a Mineral Resource update for Carlton ahead of finalising the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) toward the end of March 2019. Core anticipates further increases to the Mineral Resource at Carlton as a result of this new intersection in the future. However, due to the time required to process and cut the new core and receive assays, this additional newly identified spodumene pegmatite body is not planned to be included in the initial DFS findings.
The Finniss Project comprises over 500km2 of granted tenements over the Bynoe Pegmatite Field, near Darwin. Exploration and Resource drilling to date have confirmed that potential ore-grade lithium mineralisation is widespread within the Finniss Project, and Core’s drilling in 2018 and into early 2019 has the potential to substantially grow the Mineral Resource base to underpin a potential long-life lithium mining and production operation.