A day after announcing the financial support of TDK Corporation subsidiary Amperex Technology, St George Mining Limited (ASX: SGQ) has resumed lithium exploration at its flagship Mt Alexander project, in Western Australia’s Goldfields.
Field work is underway to test exciting new lithium targets at Mt Alexander, which comprises seven contiguous Exploration Licences and one Prospecting Licence, all owned 100% by St George except for E29/638 (75% St George: 25% IGO). St George’s landholding has extensive exposure to the contact between the Mt Alexander greenstone sequence and the Copperfield Granite – part of a large, regional LCT corridor that hosts the major lithium discovery by Delta Lithium (ASX: DLI) at its nearby Mt Ida Project (14.6Mt @ 1.2% Li2O).
Active lithium exploration in this emerging lithium province is also underway at the neighbouring Mt Bevan Project – a joint venture between Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd, Legacy Iron Ore Limited (ASX: LCY) and Hawthorn Resources Limited (ASX: HAW) – a project that abuts the Mt Alexander landholding.
Extensive pegmatite targets along the regional LCT corridor are the target of St George’s field work, which will include soil sampling, pegmatite field mapping and outcrop sampling focused on:
- an 8km-long zone around the Manta Prospect, where drilling by St George intersected a 121m-thick fractionated pegmatite
- a 4km-long zone of the Jailbreak Prospect, where drilling by St George intersected multiple lithium-bearing pegmatites with values up to 1.8% Li2O and rock-chip samples returned values up to 3.25% Li2O
The target zones cover large areas along the LCT corridor with evidence of extensive pegmatite occurrences – but no previous exploration for lithium. Results for laboratory assays of the first round of samples are expected in about four weeks.
“We are pleased that our field teams are back on the ground at Mt Alexander to follow up multiple target areas for lithium mineralisation. Significantly, many of these prospects have a similar geological context to the Mt Ida lithium deposit, which is about 15km south-east of Mt Alexander,” executive chairman John Prineas said.
“Our initial exploration at Mt Alexander has confirmed the presence of high-grade lithium as well as very thick pegmatites – up to 121m thick. These results support the potential for a large lithium-bearing pegmatite mineral system. Our field work will provide further information on the zonation, thickness and distribution of pegmatites along the more than 16km stretch of the regional LCT corridor on our tenure.
“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.
“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.”
