Exploration and development company Red Dirt Metals (ASX:RDT) reports it has started exploration drilling at both its Mt Ida and Yinnetharra Lithium projects in Western Australia to advance its dream of becoming Australia’s next lithium producer.
The drilling programs comprise a combined total of 150,000m worth of exploration and is being undertaken to test regional exploration targets, extend and upgrade previously reported lithium resources, and generate an understanding of broad geological controls of mineralisation at both projects respectively.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Chairman David Flanagan says Red Dirt Metals is well positioned to begin awarding contracts, finalising finance, and signing offtake agreements to start a mine at Mt Ida with hopes of converting the project into a full concentrate producing project within the next couple of years.
Adding on to this, Flanagan told this news service Yinnetharra is a project in which the company believes has a lot of resource potential, and plans to build up as much of this potential as it can find with hopes of getting the project ‘online’ and converting it into another full concentrate project alongside Mt Ida.
The chairman says he remains optimistic that the company will become the next Australian lithium production company and will be the newest addition to the global lithium supply industry.
“Amongst our peer group we think we are the next Australian lithium production company, if we can get up and running this year as we planned we will be the next entrant to the global lithium supply industry out of WA and Australia full stop.
“Amongst our peer group we think we are the next Australian lithium production company, if we can get up and running this year”
We’ve got a granted mining licence, we’ve raised money and we think that positions us really well to award key contracts and finalise finance, sign offtake agreements to start a mine.”
Flanagan adds that being situated in proximity to other large deposits within the world’s largest lithium producing jurisdiction provides further support for the company’s dreams.
“Mt Ida is within the eastern goldfields along folds where you have the largest deposits. Along strike from us you have Kathleen valley, owned by the guys at Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR), and to the south of us you’ve got pretty much everyone.”
The company notes that the 60,000m drilling program at the Mt Ida project will be completed by 5 drill rigs and will also seek to gather data and establish geotechnical parameters for pit wall angles, sterilise ground for waste dumps and process infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the 90,000m drilling program at the Yinnetharra project will seek to discover and define new lithium deposits ahead of resource drilling that is planned for later 2023, with 40 targets already lined up to be tested. The company says that 1 diamond rig and 1 reverse circulation (RC) rig are already on site, with a second RC rig expected to arrive this quarter.
The company also notes that drilling at Yinnetharra is following up on first pass drilling completed in 2022, following its acquisition of the project in September.
Initial results from this first pass drilling are expected to be returned in February this year.
In addition, Red Dirt announces it is currently on track to lodge mining approvals documentation with the Western Australian State Government in early February, with hopes of commencing mining operations in the December quarter of 2023.
Red Dirt Metals is an ASX-listed exploration and development company that is focused on bringing the high-quality, lithium-bearing pegmatite deposits located in Western Australia into production. The company is currently working on advancing its Mt Ida project towards production with a well-funding pathway, as well as its recently acquired Yinnetharra project.
The company’s Mt Ida project represents its flagship operation located about 100km northwest of Menzies in Western Australia. The project was acquired by the company in September 2021 and has undergone ‘aggressive’ exploration activities, and currently boasts a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 12.7 million tonnes (Mt) @ 1.2% Li2O which was completed on 19 October 2022.
Red Dirt Metals’ Yinnetharra project represents the latest addition to its exploration portfolio following the completion of an acquisition of Electrostate. The project has a large 520km-square tenement package in fertile lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) bearing terrain, as well as a cumulative strike length of 7km of known outcropping pegmatites.
Images: Red Dirt Metals Ltd
