Trek Metals (ASX:TKM) has confirmed the presence of fertile lithium-bearing pegmatites following the completion of a maiden reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at its wholly owned Tambourah Lithium Project.
Drilling was designed to test beneath ‘high-grade’ spodumene-bearing lithium rock chips in the Eastern prospect area and ‘larger’ pegmatites in the Central prospect area, where soil and rock chip sampling suggested that pegmatites are ‘highly’ fractionated.
The program comprised 20 holes for 4,093m of drilling.
Drilling intersected multiple narrow lithium-bearing pegmatites, with intercepts including hole TARC002 with 5m @ 0.69% lithium oxide (Li2O) from 36m, including 2m @ 1.44% Li2O from 38m; and hole TARC012 with 2m @ 0.72% Li2O from 24m, including 1m @ 1.07% Li2O from 25m.
The $26.18 million market capitalisation company says that the only hole targeting a geophysical target intersected a substantial width of pegmatite, which was 55m down-hole.
This has opened up the ‘large’ Central prospect area as a priority search space for follow-up drilling.
Commenting on the drill results, Trek Metals Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Derek Marshall says: “Intersecting significant lithium grades in pegmatite during our maiden drill program demonstrates the lithium fertility of the lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite system we have identified at Tambourah.
The key is now to identify a structural setting that may have allowed for a significant accumulation of this high-grade material.
Several holes were added into the program, including one into a geophysical target which has returned a significant down-hole width of pegmatite, much greater than was observed on the surface.
The success of this hole has provided a method of targeting thicker accumulations of pegmatite in this fertile greenstone belt. The significant grades returned in this first batch of samples have elevated the prospectivity of the greater Tambourah region, although we have further work to do to refine our exploration targeting and vector into thicker, high-grade zones of spodumene mineralisation.”
Trek Metals is a battery minerals focused explorer. The Tambourah project is located 70km southeast of the Pilgangoora lithium deposit in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
As of 30 June 2023, the company had $5.89 million cash at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Trek Metals
