The ASX’s latest lithium darling, Wildcat Resources (WC8), is gearing up for a whopping 100,000m of drilling in Western Australia over the first 6 months of 2024.
The $496 million market capitalisation company plans to get 6 drill rigs up and running at its Tabba Tabba project near Port Hedland to follow up on some recent X-ray diffraction (XRD) results on reverse circulation (RC) drill samples collected from the project back in September 2023.
Wildcat says the XRD results confirm the Leia deposit in the area as a spodumene-dominant pegmatite with simple mineralogy. This validates the company’s initial understanding of the area’s mineralogy from previous Fourier-transform infra-red (FTIR) methods.
Moreover, the company says Leia is just one of 6 ‘significant’ pegmatites within the 3.2km-long lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) field at Tabba Tabba, with mineralisation at all prospects at the project remaining open — hence the ‘aggressive’ 2024 drilling campaign.
Wildcat reports that of the 10 XRD samples taken from Leia, which ranged in grade from 0.67% Li2O to 4.27% Li2O, the only significant lithium mineral species identified was spodumene, with no other major lithium minerals identified. This speaks to the abundance of spodumene and the simplicity of the mineralogy in the area.
The XRD work also highlighted the potential of The Hutt, the Boba, and the Han pegmatites, the latter 2 of which have been prioritised for upcoming exploration work.
As part of its 100,000m plan, Wildcat aims to spend the next 6 months exploring the limits of Leia and commencing infill drilling in the area, resuming exploration at Han and Boba, and starting initial drilling at some other pegmatites. The company will also continue to use FTIR analyses to inform further targeting and refine its exploration model for the area.
Wildcat Managing Director AJ Saverimutto says Leia is still open along-strike and at depth and represents the first of 6 pegmatites with exploration potential.
“The geology team has been able to utilise the information to prioritise its exploration concepts, and we are eager to commence drilling additional targets whilst simultaneously progressing Leia, with 100,000m of drilling planned at Tabba Tabba over the next 6 months to rapidly advance our understanding of the project’s geology and scale.”
Wildcat’s exploration work will also focus on discovery drilling at the Chewy pegmatite.
The Tabba Tabba project lies just 47km away from Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) 414-million-tonne Pilgangoora Project and 87km from Mineral Resources’ (ASX:MIN) 259Mt Wodgina Project, just 80km by road to Port Hedland in Western Australia.
Alongside its planned drilling work, Wildcat will also progress further geological mapping and sampling programs over the start of 2024, including ground magnetics and ground gravity surveys.
Mining.com.au named Wildcat Resources as the top-performing junior stock over 2023, with shares in the lithium hopeful surging more than 3,400% over the calendar year. While slumping lithium prices have since impacted stocks across the sector, Wildcat still trades more than 1,265% higher than it did this time last year, with shares at $0.41 as of 1:52 pm AEDT on 24 January 2024.
Write to Joshua Smith at Mining.com.au
Images: Wildcat Resources
