Venari Minerals (ASX:VMS) has commenced a 12-hole 3,360m diamond drilling campaign at its Red Mountain Lithium and Strategic Minerals Project in Nevada, US.
The campaign aims to upgrade the northern resource to the indicated category, as well as support a maiden Scoping Study scheduled for Q1 2027.
Venari says the program targets the ‘highest-grade’ portion of the project’s mineral resource estimate (MRE), which contains 47.9 million tonnes (Mt) @ 2,193 parts per million (ppm) lithium (Li) for 560,000 tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) at a 1,300ppm Li cut-off.
Drilling is expected to take around six weeks, with assay results anticipated progressively from September through to late November.
Executive Chairman Tony Leibowitz says the campaign marks an ‘important step’ in advancing Red Mountain from resource definition towards development studies.
“Since our discovery hole in May 2024, Venari has rapidly advanced the project, which now comprises a 3Mt contained LCE resource estimate, potential strontium and magnesium by-products, and the proven ability to produce a value-added, 99.5% pure, battery-grade lithium carbonate,” Leibowitz says.
The upgraded MRE will underpin Venari’s maiden Scoping Study, which will assess development potential as a US critical minerals project.
Red Mountain’s current MRE totals 500Mt @ 1,139ppm Li for 3.03Mt contained LCE at a 700ppm Li cut-off. Scoping leachability testwork indicates high lithium recovery of up to 98%.
Beneficiation testwork has also demonstrated the potential to produce ‘high-purity’ battery-grade lithium carbonate directly from mineralised rocks without third-party processing.
The Red Mountain Project hosts the Horse Camp Formation, featuring broad mapped tertiary lacustrine sedimentary rocks. Venari has completed 32 drill holes to date at the project, for a combined total of 6,015m of drilling across four campaigns.
As previously reported, the company recently completed the first tranche of a $6.1 million capital raise to fund the drilling program and continue project development activities.
Venari Minerals is an explorer focused on critical and precious metals, with its flagship Red Mountain asset in Nevada.
Write to Paula Fabe at Mining.com.au
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