IRIS Metals (ASX:IR1) has a diamond drill rig being fast-tracked to its 100% owned Beecher Project to continue testing pegmatites following results from the first 6 reverse circulation (RC) holes of a 38-hole program.
The $194.64 million market capitalisation company says the diamond drill rig will test pegmatites along strike and at greater depth to also provide metallurgical and geotechnical samples for mining feasibility studies.
Applications are being prepared for additional drill pads at the Beecher Project for diamond drill testing of deeper mineralised targets. The company has an RC rig located on site which has been awaiting assay results. This is planned to be re-deployed at Beecher.
IRIS reports the results highlight the economic potential of the Beecher Project, which is located 7km from the township of Custer in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The project is located on a 15-acre patented claim, surrounded by 20,300 hectares of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) staked claims.
The first 6 holes of a 38-hole RC program have recently been returned highlighting the width, grade and shallow depths of lithium mineralisation of the Longview pegmatite. The 6 holes cover 240m of strike along the mapped 500m Longview pegmatite that drilling shows is open at depth and along strike in all directions.
The Longview mine is one of 3 historic lithium producing mines on the Beecher Project with a combined pegmatite outcropping strike length of nearly 2,000m. Particularly thick intersections of pegmatite were logged at both the Longview (88m true width) and the Black Diamond (107m downhole width). Assays are yet to be received for these pegmatite intersections.
Best intersections from the first 6 holes include 60m @ 1.21% Li₂O (true width) from 16m in BDH-23-001, including 40m @ 1.40% Li₂O from 36m, and 22m @ 1.90% Li₂O from 46m.
It also includes 54m @ 1.30% Li₂O (true width) from 1m in BDH-23-009, including 35m @ 1.58% Li₂O from 4m, and 13m @ 2.10% Li₂O from 24m.
Addressing the results, Technical Director Chris Connell says: “These broad, near surface initial results confirm my confidence in the Beecher Project and the Black Hills as a future lithium mining district of great importance for supplying the US market.
IRIS has leveraged its first mover advantage to secure a dominant land holding over the most prospective pegmatites in the Black Hills as confirmed by these initial drilling results. These first drillholes are testing only a tiny portion of the Company’s 2,400+ mining claims staked over fertile LCT pegmatites that were historically mined for lithium from the 1940’s.
As IRIS is the only ASX-listed company with granted hard rock lithium pegmatite mining licences in the US, we currently are aggressively ramping-up drill testing of the Beecher Project. Importantly, wide, high-grade results from surface will support mining to a low mining strip ratio which is of enormous benefit to mining economics, combined with granted mining licences – we have our ears pinned-back.”
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: IRIS Metals Ltd
