Pilbara-focused Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8) has made a fresh lithium discovery at its Tabba Tabba Lithium Tantalum Project near Port Hedland, Western Australia.
Exploration drilling beneath the Leia deposit has discovered a thick lithium mineralised repetition that threw up a top intercept of 41m @ 1% lithium from 267m, including 24m @ 1.3% from 276m.
“The blind discovery of another thick mineralised pegmatite at Luke confirms the ongoing exploration potential at Tabba Tabba,” Geology Manager Torrin Rowe says.
“It is pleasing to see our exploration team’s efforts in developing and testing geological theories being rewarded.”
Tabba Tabba sits near to some of the world’s largest hard-rock lithium mines, including Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) 414-million-tonne Pilgangoora Project and Mineral Resources’ (ASX:MIN) 259Mt Wodgina Project.
The initial Tabba Tabba discovery sent Wildcat on a share price run, with the news initially more than doubling the company’s market value, which has continued to climb ever since.
With the continued gains, the share price now sits at $0.645 giving Wildcat a market capitalisation of around $778.2 million.
Drilling at the new Luke discovery is focused on defining the scale, continuity and geometry of the pegmatite body inside a target zone of up to 1 kilometre in strike length.
Meanwhile, diamond drilling at the Leia deposit continues to hit paydirt. Top hits featured 68m @ 1.4% lithium from 337m, including 50m @ 1.5% from 338m; and 58.7m @ 1.3% from 333.1m, including 11.8m @ 2.3% from 362.2m.
Nearly 74,000m has been drilled at Tabba Tabba to date, with assays still pending for 27 diamond holes and 30 reverse circulation holes.
Since acquiring the project just a year ago, Wildcat says it has defined a 3.2km long lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite field hosting at least seven significant pegmatite bodies.
Wildcat had $94.1 million cash in the bank at 31 December 2023, which the company says enables the completion of drilling and initial studies at Tabba Tabba.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Wildcat Resources
