Alchemy Resources’ lithium hunt in the goldfields of Western Australia has obtained early success with the company identifying promising pegmatite potential at the Karonie lithium and gold project near Kalgoorlie.
The now complete initial Karonie drill program of 28 drillholes for 3,732m, has identified new pegmatite zones in drillholes at the Taupo North target, with geological logging confirming multiple zones up to 186m down hole.
Taupo North lies along a structural trend which hosts the Karonie gold deposits to the north of the Aldiss mining operations owned by Silver Lake Resources. The area has no history of previous lithium exploration.
Pecan target finds
Alchemy has also identified zones of pegmatites up to 70m downhole at the Hickory-Pecan target, which are located down dip of recently discovered lepidolite and spodumene outcrops.
Chief executive officer, James Wilson, said the pegmatites in both areas are interpreted to extend at least 100m vertically from surface and remain open with varying widths from 1-5m.
“The discovery of extensive stacked pegmatites at Taupo North and Hickory is a very positive development. This confirms our model that pegmatites occur in proximity to the Cardunia Granite,” Mr Wilson said.
“Importantly the pegmatites mapped at Hickory are continuous at depth, have a stacked geometry and continue to the north and west under the shallow alluvial cover which extends for approximately 3km to the north, masking any surface geochemical expression.”
Planning is now underway for follow-up exploration including detailed surface mapping, geochemical sampling, shallow drilling and geophysics to identify pegmatites under alluvial cover prior to further deeper drilling.
Gravity targets identified
The initial program at Karonie is testing high priority gravity targets at the Hickory, Mesquite and Pecan prospects, along with Taupo North Prospects identified from recent field mapping.
The drill targets are located approximately 8km to the south of Global Lithium Resources Manna deposit.
Alchemy had proposed testing of around 5,400m of strike length of what the company believes is an extensive system of interpreted pegmatites and high tenor targets which have been identified by field mapping, high resolution gravity and soil sampling.
Depth of these holes were design to be up to 132m downhole, with spacings of 80m to provide adequate crossover to establish dyke orientation.
A gravity program was undertaken to assist Alchemy’s planning for the current program which is focused on testing multiple previously unknown pegmatite targets, along with numerous large gravity lows which have been flagged as high priority target areas for testing.
The gravity survey data highlighted analogous targets trending under the alluvial channel linking the two prospect areas over a 5km strike extent.
Future work plans
Alchemy is now assessing future work programs including further drilling to explore for additional pegmatites under cover to the north of Hickory towards Pecan. To date the potential of this area has been masked by presence of a significant alluvial channel approximately 3km in strike.
The company has confirmed that the pegmatites continue under cover at Pecan and Taupo North through the recent drill program and it is investigating the use of geophysics, broad spaced auger, aircore and RC drilling as a rapid way to detect prospective areas.
Alchemy is now awaiting the results from samples sent to local laboratories before finalising its next steps.
