Astute Metals (ASX:ASE) is getting ready to plan an initial scout drilling campaign to test a recently discovered lithium soil anomaly at the Red Mountain Lithium Project in Nevada, US.
Once the final hole designs for drilling are complete, the $12.72 million market capitalisation company plans to submit a Notice of Operations to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to permit the disturbance required for drilling.
Astute expects to have permitting approved and a bond in place by the end of 2023 and to mobilise a drill rig towards the end of Q1 2024.
This news comes after the company conducted a surface sampling campaign that generated ‘large-scale’ lithium anomalies at Red Mountain.
Astute reports the zone of anomalous lithium returned results of more than 50 parts per million (ppm) in soil stretches over a north-south strike extent of 8km and a width of up to 2.8km, with internal coherent zones of more than 100ppm lithium and a maximum value of up to 1,110ppm lithium.
The company notes that these results are ‘highly encouraging’, as they suggest ‘excellent’ potential for ‘thick’ underlying lithium-bearing sedimentary rocks on a scale of kilometres.
Astute Metals Executive Chairman Tony Leibowitz says the company has also completed an ‘extensive’ rock chip sampling program and is awaiting assay results to help plan the next phase of exploration.
“Our exploration targeting strategy in Nevada is delivering excellent results, demonstrating our ability to expand our project pipeline by identifying and securing highly prospective areas.”
“Our exploration targeting strategy in Nevada is delivering excellent results”
The rock chip sampling assay results are due later this month.
Astute Metals is a diversified minerals explorer focused on discovering and developing critical minerals. The company’s assets lie in tier-one resource jurisdictions, including Nevada, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.
As of 30 September 2023, the company had $4.182 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Astute Metals
