Chariot Corporation’s Phase 1 drill program at the Black Mountain project in Wyoming has intersected high-grade spodumene mineralisation and confirmed the exploration potential of the area.
Early results have already identified a potentially large pegmatite stock at a shallow depth of around 100 to 200 metres to the east of the Phase 1 area.
After some initial weather-related delays, the company has now completed its maiden 9-hole, Phase 1 diamond drilling program with a total of 1,132m drilled.
Promising early results
Chariot commenced the program in early November 2023 and – despite the adverse weather conditions and a subsequent 5-acre restrictive disturbance limit – successfully drilled three initial holes testing outcropping pegmatites and returning high-grade intercepts of 0.8 to 1.12% lithium oxide over intervals of 14m.
The company then returned in the new year to complete drilling and assaying the last six holes, which intersected broad intervals of 40 to 85m, containing thin (less than 1m) pegmatite dikes that typically assayed between 0.1% to 0.2% lithium oxide.
Chariot’s management said that while assay results from these final six holes yielded lower lithium grades than those from the first three, it is encouraged by the anomalous lithium values—particularly in terms of fractionation levels, as shown by the geochemistry of the low-lithium pegmatites.
Testing of high-lithium samples and some low-lithium pegmatites indicated they were both highly fractionated, suggesting a genetic link to spodumene pegmatites, potentially as the low-lithium edges of a larger lithium-rich pegmatite.
New surface mapping program
With results from the Phase 1 program, Chariot reprocessed and reinterpreted the surface mapping and ground magnetics data, leading the company’s geologists to modify their initial structural interpretation of the pegmatite dikes.
This revised interpretation suggests what was exposed at surface and drilled under the Phase 1 program were folded pegmatite sills, offshoots from a large unexposed pegmatite stock manifesting as a large magnetic low at depths of 100m or more to the southeast of the program area.
Next drilling phase
Chariot will shift its exploration focus to examine the pegmatite stock in an area extending 2km south-east of the Phase 1 program area.
However, as it may not receive environmental approval for drilling until late Q3 or early Q4 2024, Chariot is considering a limited drill program from the existing seven drill pads within the 5 acres of disturbance under the notice of intent.
Chariot is assessing whether the distance of the expected pegmatite stock from these drill pads renders further exploration uneconomic.
If this proves to be the case, further drilling will be deferred until new drill pads can be located closer to the believed pegmatite stock location after environmental approval.
