Scorpion Minerals is moving on converting its maiden resource after officially setting a large Exploration Target for the central area of its Youanmi Lithium Project in Western Australia.
The initial 7.6 to 13.6 million tonnes at 1.0 – 1.4% Li2O target includes the upper and lower pegmatites of just the central 900 metres of a 2500 metre mineralised trend lying at Youanmi which remains open to the north, south, and down dip.
It is yet to include numerous adjacent stacked pegmatites indicated by prospective drilling and historical intercepts, and Scorpion believe its initial target has highlighted a large trend with continuous and predictable mineralisation.
Scorpion CEO Michael Fotios said the company was delighted to be reporting a robust target which clearly shows the project’s potential scale and high-grade nature.
This Exploration Target is an important step in demonstrating the potential value of the Youanmi Project, as it binds together a significant amount of work completed to date including over 8,000m of drilling and extensive sampling and mapping,” Mr Fotios said.
He added that with the initial target covering only 35 per cent of the mineralised strike identified to date, it supports a view that the system will continue to grow considerably with further drilling.
“Our targeted drilling over the past 12 months has provided a vast amount of technical data and we are currently in the process of integrating this into our Maiden JORC Resource Estimate for the project,” he said.
“Drilling so far has shown that mineralisation remains open in all directions at Youanmi, and we are confident that further drilling in the near term will add to this initial Exploration Target range.”
Past exploration has identified significant lithium-caesium-tantalum in pegmatites with the hallmarks of significant mineralised systems, and Scorpion has a lot of exploration news in the rack as it moves on a maiden resource.
Infill and extensional RC drilling campaigns and the diamond bit will all be directed at testing the exploration target, with diamond drilling providing the sample for initial metallurgy.
RC drilling will also be testing the parallel pegmatites to determine their extent and composition, and Scorpion is planning for more follow up mapping and sampling, auger geochemistry, diamond drill testing at depth, electromagnetic surveys, and potentially high-resolution airborne photography as it gets a full scope of the potential held at Youanmi lithium.