Estrella Resources Limited (ASX: ESR) has received further positive results of an ongoing lithium review at the Carr Boyd Nickel Project located 80km north-northeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
This is the first work programme Estrella has undertaken to target pegmatite hosted lithium potential within the 228 square kilometre land holding.
The review was undertaken due to unsolicited approaches from third parties to evaluate the potential of Carr Boyd tenure hosting LCT-type pegmatites.
The Carr Boyd Rocks Monzogranite partially intrudes the northern section of the Carr Boyd layered mafic intrusion. Monzogranites are associated with other Western Australian lithium deposits and this precedence is an important factor in assessing the positive potential of Estrella’s tenure.
While it is only early days in our understanding of what could be a significant pegmatite field located on our Carr Boyd Ni/Cu mine exploration area, we are nonetheless pleased with the modelling of soil geochemistry work which highlights the project’s LCT potential,” Managing Director, Chris Daws, said.
“The Estrella team is at the initial phase of a staged work program to evaluate the lithium prospectivity on our 100% owned tenure. With further work, we hope to ascertain a strong understanding of this possibility which may eventually lead to generation of lithium targets for drilling.
“Importantly, this work does not detract from our efforts at Carr Boyd to find a significant nickel sulphide deposit but certainly adds upside to our exploration program and I look forward to updating the market on our progress on both nickel and lithium exploration fronts.”
Associated with the monzogranite is a 9km wide by 14km long area of surficial quartz and pegmatite float material within alluvial and colluvial sediments. The magnetics and historic drilling within this area reveal it to be underlain by the Carr Boyd mafic intrusion with pegmatite development within.
A 7km by 3km auger geochemical program conducted by Estrella over the T5-Broonhill contact and Colreavy Komatiite exploring for nickel partially overlaps the mapped area of sub-crop and float. Modelling of the lithium, caesium and tantalum results identified mid-level anomalism occurring away from the monzogranite and into the surrounding pegmatite field. This is seen as a positive indication that the fractionating pegmatites could produce REE’s within Estrella’s tenure.
Historical drilling is particularly sparce over the eastern gabbroic section of the intrusion. While pegmatites have been logged – numerous shallow wide-spaced RAB drillholes and shallow costeans which were subsequently rehabilitated – no relevant assay data is available.
A number of consecutive RAB drillholes by Australian Nickel Mines in 2003 on northing 6,674,960 intersected pegmatite from near surface to end of hole.
The holes were not assayed for any REE’s or related elements. The programme was nickel-focussed and no other geological or assay information pertaining to lithium mineralisation is available. The historic drill chips are no longer visible at surface for re-assay and holes will require redrilling.
It should be noted that this information simply proves extensive and thick pegmatites exist, however there is no information as to their prospectivity for LCT minerals at this stage and is not a proxy for laboratory assay.
Next Steps
A staged approach will be taken firstly to ascertain the LCT potential of the “source granite” and the geochemistry of the resulting pegmatites along with more detailed field and geochemical investigations. A second stage of wide spaced geochemistry will be undertaken to determine fractionation patterns and for broad anomaly generation.
