Castle Minerals Limited (ASX: CDT) has confirmed the presence of lithium mineralisation with its now completed, maiden 937-sample soils campaign at the 242 sq. km Woodcutters Lithium Project in the Norseman region of WA.
Woodcutters is a credible, early- stage opportunity to identify lithium-bearing pegmatites in a region whose lithium credentials are already confirmed by the Bald Hill mine and Buldania deposit,” Managing Director, Stephen Stone, said.
“The recently completed soils campaign was designed to confirm and infill coincident anomalies of lithium and lithium indicator elements obtained by a historical wide-spaced auger sampling program searching for gold.
“The area sampled lies in the same structural trend and pegmatite field that hosts the Bald Hill lithium-tantalum mine, 25km to the northwest, and also hosts pegmatites mapped by the GSWA which do not appear to have been drilled for lithium.
“Results are expected late-April and if positive will be followed up with RC drill testing whilst the remaining soil anomalies will also be soil sampled to verify their prospectivity.”
The campaign was designed to cover a 10km south-east trending zone in the northern extent of its two licences (EL15/1846 and EL15/1847) where GSWA4,7 mapping noted several pegmatite outcrops. These do not appear to have been sampled or drilled for lithium.
The pegmatites in the sampled area lie within a conceptual regional corridor of lithium mineralisation that also hosts the Alita Resources owned Bald Hill lithium-tantalum mine1, 25km to the northwest. Their close proximity to several mapped intrusions, the likely source of any lithium mineralisation, is considered very favourable.
The area recently sampled by Castle also contains one of several anomalous zones on its licences of coincident lithium and lithium indicator elements (rubidium, beryllium, caesium and tin). These anomalies were highlighted in a detailed review commissioned by Castle of historical sampling and multi-element assay data obtained by AngloGold Ashanti which was exploring for gold.
The multi-element signatures of the Castle identified anomalies are consistent with possible hard rock lithium mineralisation associated with lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) type pegmatites.
The AGG auger sampling was undertaken along access tracks on a general grid arrangement which varied from 100m x 1000m to 200m x 1000m. Almost 80% coverage of Castle’s licence area was obtained.
Castle’s sampling was undertaken on a 200m x 200m grid which is considered a sufficient density to provide good regional coverage for lithium mineralisation associated with LCT type pegmatites.
The samples have been submitted to Intertek Laboratories, Kalgoorlie for multi-element ICP analysis. Assays and interpreted results are expected to be available in May 2023.
The Woodcutters project, the Bald Hill mine together with the Liontown Resources Limited owned Buldania lithium deposit 25km to the southwest and the Mineral Resources Limited owned Mt Marion mine ~100km to the north all lie within what is broadly termed the “Western Australia Lithium Corridor”.