Minerals 260 (ASX:MI6) is analysing and planning its next phase of exploration activities at its Aston Lithium and Rare Earth Project in Western Australia.
The $64.35 million market capitalisation company says the next phase of fieldwork will be completed in Q2 2024, aligning with the availability of the Gumala Aboriginal Corporation to conduct required heritage surveys.
The work follows Minerals 260 receiving ‘encouraging’ soil and rock chip assay results.
Minerals 260 reports today (17 January 2024) a new 4.5km by 3km, more than 100 parts per million (ppm) lithium oxide (Li2O) trend defined by regional soil sampling at the Lyndon prospect, within the Aston project.
Anomalous lithium up to 323ppm, rubidium up to 1,340ppm, and tantalum up to 175ppm was recorded in limited rock chip sampling at Lyndon.
These latest results suggest another possible lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) mineralised trend.
Minerals 260 Managing Director Luke McFadyen says the company is continuing to progress Aston in a systematic and phased manner to ensure there is as much data as possible to inform potential future drilling campaigns.
“We are encouraged with this latest set of results, including new potential drilling targets and the best lithium in soil numbers we’ve seen to date.
Drilling at a project of this scale (1,700km-square) and this remote needs to be planned thoroughly and meticulously at every level. While analysis and planning for Aston is ongoing, the drilling at Moora and Koojan is exciting to get underway and we are looking forward to receiving results.”
Regional soil sampling at the New Well prospect returned results up to 426ppm Li2O, which is the ‘highest result’ recorded from the project since May 2023. The company is planning infill soil sampling in Q2 to better define the anomaly.
Meanwhile at the Lucky Well prospect, infill and regional soil sampling defined a new 4.1km by 2.2km area with multiple more than 800ppm total rare earth oxide (TREO) anomalies have been located.
Minerals 260 reports the ‘largest’ anomaly is 2km by 2.5km and returned results up to 1,588ppm TREO and 379ppm neodymium oxide (Nd2O3) + praseodymium oxide (Pr6O11).
The Aston Project covers a 1,700km-square area in the Gascoyne Mineral Province of northwest Western Australia.
Minerals 260 is a diversified minerals explorer focused on gold, platinum group elements, nickel, and copper discoveries.
As of 30 September 2023, the company had $15.453 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Minerals 260
