Liontown Resources Limited (ASX: LTR) has achieved a major milestone with the releases of a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its 100%- owned Buldania Lithium Project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.
The Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource, which was prepared by independent specialist resource and mining consulting group Optiro Pty Ltd, comprises 14.9Mt @ 0.97% Li2O and 44ppm Ta2O5.
Managing Director David Richards said the maiden Mineral Resource confirmed Buldania as a significant new greenfields lithium-tantalum discovery with substantial growth potential.
“The resource remains open and offers significant growth potential within an emerging district that is almost completely unexplored for lithium mineralisation,” he said.
“The maiden resource for the Anna pegmatite sets a strategic foundation for future exploration in this highly prospective region whilst also complementing our flagship, high-quality resource at Kathleen Valley.
Our focus remains at Kathleen Valley, where a major resource expansion drill program is continuing in parallel with a Pre-Feasibility Study due for completion by the end of this year.”
A number of drilling programs have been undertaken at Anna at Buldania since early 2018 and the drilling database used to define the lithium mineralisation comprises 133 Reverse Circulation drill holes for a total of 21,218m and 9,383 assays, and three diamond drill holes for a total of 548.5m and 435 assays. The drill section spacing ranges from 50m to 100m and the on-section hole spacing is generally 40m to 80m.
The resource model for the Anna deposit was constructed using a parent block size of 15mE by 15mN on 1.0m benches and the parent blocks were allowed to sub-cell down to 2.5mE by 2.5mN by 0.5mRL to more accurately represent the geometries and volumes of the mineralised pegmatites.
Lithium oxide (Li2O) % and tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) ppm block grades were estimated using ordinary kriging techniques, with appropriate top-cuts applied to the Ta2O5 sample data. A bulk density of 2.70 t/m3 was applied for tonnage estimation.
