Castle Minerals (ASX:CDT) has completed a maiden 937-sample soils campaign at its Woodcutters Lithium Project in Western Australia.
The company says the samples were gathered within a 10km southeast trending zone within the northern extent of its 2 licences (EL15/1846 and EL15/1847), where mapping notes several pegmatite outcrops. These outcrops are reported to have not been sampled or drilled for lithium.
Castle Minerals notes this area also hosts a historical multi-element geochemical anomaly of coincident lithium and lithium indicator elements, including rubidium (Rb), beryllium (Be), caesium (Cs), and tin (Sn). It is interpreted that these elements are consistent with possible hard rock lithium mineralisation.
Soil sampling was conducted to validate the presence of lithium-bearing pegmatites within the Woodcutters project, with samples being submitted to Intertek Laboratories in the township of Kalgoorlie for multi-element ICP analysis.
Addressing the completion of soil sampling work, Castle Managing Director Stephen Stone says: “Woodcutters is a credible, early-stage opportunity to identify lithium-bearing pegmatites in a region whose lithium credentials are already confirmed by the Bald Hill mine and Buldania deposit.
The recently completed soils campaign was designed to confirm and infill coincident anomalies of lithium and lithium indicator elements obtained by a historical wide-spaced auger sampling program searching for gold.
“Woodcutters is a credible, early-stage opportunity to identify lithium-bearing pegmatites in a region whose lithium credentials are already confirmed…”
The area sampled lies in the same structural trend and pegmatite field that hosts the Bald Hill lithium-tantalum mine, 25km to the northwest, and also hosts pegmatites mapped by the GSWA which do not appear to have been drilled for lithium.
Results are expected late-April and if positive will be followed up with RC drill testing whilst the remaining soil anomalies will also be soil sampled to verify their prospectivity.”
Castle also notes the pegmatites in the sampled area lie within a conceptual regional corridor of lithium mineralisation which is also host to Alita Resources’ Bald Hill lithium-tantalum mine about 25km to the northwest.
It is reported the close proximity of the Bald Hill project to the several mapped intrusions, the likely source of any lithium mineralisation, is considered very favourable.
In addition, the multi-element signatures of the Castle identified anomalies are reported to be consistent with possible hard rock lithium mineralisation associated with lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) type pegmatites.
With sampling now complete, Castle Minerals announces assays and interpreted results are expected to be received in May 2023. Aircore (AC) drilling will be undertaken, subject to results, over areas of colluvium with anomalous lithium and other indicator elements in order to confirm the occurrence of pegmatites below the areas of cover.
Castle Minerals is an ASX-listed company headquartered in Perth, Western Australia with interests in several projects located in WA and Ghana that are considered prospective for battery metals (lithium and graphite), base metals, and gold. The company’s Woodcutters project is located within the Norseman region of Western Australia and comprises a total landholding of 242km-square.
The project is considered prospective for spodumene bearing pegmatites and makes up part of the company’s battery metals strategy, which also comprises the Wilgee Springs Lithium, Woomba Well Lithium, Great Southern Graphite, and its flagship Kambale Graphite projects.
Images: Castle Minerals Limited
