St George Mining Limited (ASX: SGQ) has commenced a multi-faceted exploration program at the Woolgangie project, located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
St George’s first-ever field program at Woolgangie – acquired earlier this year – will include aircore drilling, an airborne magnetic survey, a ground-based electromagnetic survey and soil surveys. Prospects include targets for lithium, rare earths and copper.
The project tenure comprises a dominant landholding of 3,350 sq km in an underexplored region of the Coolgardie Mineral Field and takes in +90km of the Ida Fault – a major crustal boundary that controls multiple major minerals deposits within Western Australia.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Lithium at Woolgangie:
- Multiple pegmatite outcrops have been identified across the project tenure – there has been no previous lithium exploration at the project
- Priority exploration target is an area ~25km long and adjacent to the western margin of the established lithium region that hosts several major lithium mines including the Mt Marion mine (71.3Mt @ 1.37% Li2O) of Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN)
- Field mapping, soil surveys and rock chip sampling of pegmatite targets are underway
- Rare Earth Elements (REE) at Woolgangie:
- Historical drilling identified wide zones of REE anomalism including 84m @ 470ppmCe+La+Y from 96m (WRC016) and 24m @ 649ppm Ce+La+Y from 8m (WRC014)
- Previous REE intercepts neither assayed for heavy rare earths nor followed up with a targeted exploration program
- 2,500m aircore (AC) drill program underway to test for ionic clay-hosted REE mineralisation across an area of 55 sq km
- Copper at Woolgangie:
- Wide zones of copper mineralisation were intersected by historical drilling designed to test an electromagnetic (EM) conductor including 50m @ 0.20% Cu from 80m(WRC003)
- No follow-up exploration despite extensive copper sulphides encountered by drilling
- St George will complete a ground-based moving loop EM survey to better model prospective EM conductors ahead of plans for drilling
- Mt Alexander and Lithium Star:
- Lithium-focused exploration programs are also planned for Q4 2023 at the Mt Alexander project and the recently acquired exploration licences held by Lithium Star
John Prineas, St George Mining’s executive chairman, said:
“We are delighted to announce that we have commenced field work at Woolgangie, an exciting project that St George only acquired in February. Woolgangie offers an excellent opportunity for a new discovery in an area of the Eastern Goldfields that has seen very limited exploration other than for gold and nickel.
“Historical drilling has revealed thick zones of copper and rare earths mineralisation that present as attractive prospects and warrant follow-up work. In addition, extensive pegmatite trends at the project have yet to be systematically explored for lithium.
“Woolgangie is an example of how St George is building out our portfolio of highly prospective exploration assets to deliver a pipeline of value-creating opportunities for shareholders.
“The project is located in a Tier 1 mineral hotspot and – for the first time – is being worked over using modern exploration methods to fully investigate the potential for economic mineralisation.
“In parallel to Woolgangie, we are planning the next phase of lithium exploration at the Mt Alexander project as well as our maiden field programs for the lithium prospective tenements recently acquired through our subsidiary, Lithium Star Pty Limited. We will be announcing more about these field programs soon.
“St George will be an active explorer for the remainder of this year. We look forward to reporting further on the multiple field programs underway.”
