Shares in junior explorer Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) are on the rise after the company reported a ‘significant’ new lithium pegmatite discovery at its Mt Marie prospect in Western Australia.
The $21.2 million market capitalisation company says assay results from rock chips taken during a recent ground reconnaissance sampling program on tenement E47/1746 show a peak grade of 1.82% Li2O, with other top hits including 1.62% Li2O and 0.78% Li2O.
Further, X-ray diffraction analyses confirmed the mineralisation as spodumene.
Artemis is busy flying drone surveys across the Mt Marie area to help plan follow-up exploration work, which the company says will include further surveying, rock chip and soil sampling, and other ground reconnaissance techniques. The company will kick off this work over the coming weeks.
Shares in Artemis were up 13.33% to $0.017 as of midday AEDT on 5 February.
Artemis Executive Director George Ventouras says the new rock chip results are a ‘vote of confidence’ in the company’s technical team and its methodologies.
“Importantly for the company and the region, this discovery is further evidence of a potential corridor of lithium mineralisation extending beyond 40km in the west Pilbara region, where Artemis’ tenements are located.
We are further encouraged by the geological structure of the pegmatites which appear to be coarse-grained and feature large spodumene crystals and may parallel the Azure Minerals Andover discovery.”
“This discovery is further evidence of a potential corridor of lithium mineralisation extending beyond 40km in the west Pilbara region, where Artemis’ tenements are located”
All up, Artemis has now identified 24 target areas in the Mt Marie area, and the company says it will ‘systematically’ explore these to determine which targets host lithium-bearing pegmatites.
Artemis says the lithium-bearing pegmatite at the Mt Marie prospect occurs along a ‘mirrored or similar’ northeast structural trend as pegmatites discovered by Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) roughly 20km to the east.
In parallel to its Mt Marie work, Artemis is planning further work at its Osborne Lithium Project, also in Western Australia, of which it owns 49% through a joint venture arrangement with Greentech Metals (ASX:GRE).
Artemis Resources had roughly $1.56 million cash at hand as of 31 December 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Joshua Smith at Mining.com.au
Images: Artemis Resources
