Zenith Minerals (ASX:ZNC) reports diamond core drilling in a 200m step out hole has confirmed thick, ‘high-grade’ lithium mineralisation at the Split Rocks project in Western Australia.
The company says in addition to this, deeper core drilling shows that pegmatite extends or repeats by up to a further 100m below many reverse circulation (RC) holes.
New lithium drill results from hole ZVCD039 (diamond core tail to ZVRC039) includes 26m @ 1.2% Li2O including 13m @ 1.9% Li2O in the upper zone and 23m @ 0.8% Li2O including 8m @ 1.3% Li2O in the lower zone.
“The program has returned thick high-grade intervals of lithium in an extension of an RC drillhole”
Zenith Minerals Managing Director Michael Clifford said “I am very pleased to report on the first diamond core assays from the current drill program on the Rio pegmatite at Split Rocks.
The program has returned thick high-grade intervals of lithium in an extension of an RC drillhole. In addition, another 7 diamond core tails confirms that pegmatite extends to significant depths below many RC holes.”
The company reports these lithium results over 2 intervals total 49m in thickness, and mineralisation is a 200m step-out to the south and 200m to the east of previously reported mineralised holes ZVRC037 and ZVRC040, and diamond drilling also confirms that pegmatite continues or repeats at depth below many RC drillholes.
It notes diamond core hole ZVCD079 shows that pegmatite extends around 100m below the RC drillhole ZVRC043.
Split Rocks is located around 40km south of the regional town of Marvel Loch in the Goldfields Region of Western Australia, and it is being explored as part of the Zenith Lithium Joint Venture (JV) with EV Metals Group which can earn a 60% interest in the project, with Zenith retaining a 40% project share.
The project area lies immediately north of the Mt Holland Lithium Project (Covalent Lithium) and drilling as part of an ongoing exploration campaign to scope the size of the host pegmatite and contained lithium mineralisation at Rio has returned ‘significant’ mineralisation.
Zenith reports lithium pegmatite mineralisation identified to date is a mixture of eucryptite with lesser spodumene, petalite and lepidolite confirmed by multiple methods including optical microscopy, SEM, Raman spectroscopy and XRD analyses.
The amenability of eucryptite mineralisation to conventional treatment processes has been shown by positive sighter flotation testwork and bench scale calcination-leach tests, which the company says has confirmed the potential of eucryptite as a viable lithium target.
Moving forward, Zenith reports pegmatite has been outlined over a length of over 2,400m and over 2,400m in width remaining open, with a lithium mineralised zone of over 0.1% Li2O identified over a length of more than 2,100m by 1,000m.
Within this zone, an open-ended ‘higher grade’ over 0.3% Li2O lithium zone extends for greater than 650m in length and remains open to the north, south and east at depth.
Zenith states drilling will now be refocused from the wider scout program to defining the ‘higher grade’ lithium zone with mineralisation remaining open to the north, south and east at depth.
Zenith Minerals is an Australian-based battery minerals explorer with three lithium projects across Western Australia.
Its projects include the 660km-square Split Rocks Project in the Forrestania greenstone belt, the Waratah Well Project around 20km northwest of Yalgoo in the Murchison Region, and the Mt Ida North Project located around 95km west of Leonora in the Goldfields Region of Western Australia.
The company also holds the Develin Creek Copper-Zinc Project in Queensland, and a 25% interest in the Earaheedy Zinc-Lead Project in Western Australia, however the company is considering transferring these assets into a separate ASX-listed company called Mackerel Metals.
Images: Zenith Minerals Ltd
