Venari Minerals (ASX:VMS) has delivered a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 500 million tonnes @ 1,139 parts per million (ppm) for 3.03 million tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent from the Red Mountain Lithium Project in Nevada.
The company has identified this estimate to be above the preferred cut-off of 700ppm lithium.
The total estimate comprises a resource estimate of Red Mountain North of 91.6 million tonnes @ 1,618ppm lithium for 0.79 million tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent, and Red Mountain Central for 408 million tonnes @ 1,031 lithium for 2.24 million tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent.
CEO Matthew Healy says the delivery of this maiden resource is a milestone for the company which propels it to the “forefront of the ASX-listed explorers and establishing Red Mountain as one of the largest new lithium resources in the Americas and a compelling development opportunity”.
“Red Mountain exhibits all the key characteristics that we look for in a large-scale mineral asset – scale, extensive mineral endowment, and an accessible high-grade zone that can be targeted for initial mining,” Healy says.
“In addition, metallurgical testwork has demonstrated an economic pathway to recover the metal, and the project is located in a tier-one mining district close to world-class infrastructure.
“This puts both Venari Minerals and Red Mountain firmly on the map of significant North American lithium projects and gives us an incredible foundation to advance the project quickly to the next stage, not only by growing and upgrading the MRE through further drilling, but also by initiating development studies at an extremely favourable time in the metals cycle and in a period when there is strong US policy momentum to support the development of new domestic critical minerals asset.”
Chairman Tony Leibowitz says the process of advancing the project from discovery hole to MRE in less than two years is a “remarkable achievement”.
“With this impressive maiden MRE, investors finally have the opportunity to see the enormous value in this discovery and the benefits of the counter-cyclical strategy we have been pursuing for the past two years,” Leibowitz says.
“Venari now owns one of the larger exploration-phase lithium resources on the ASX. And it has enormous potential for growth – being limited only by the extent of drilling, with clear potential along strike, at depth and at a number of locations well beyond the current MRE.”
Venari Minerals is a diversified mineral explorer focused primarily on lithium, gold, and silver in the US.
The company is attending the RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle, Western Australia, held from 17-19 February 2026.
Mining.com.au is a media partner for the conference.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Venari Minerals
