The discovery of spodumene at Whim Creek could add lithium to Anax’s target list. Pic: via Getty Images
Anax makes a ‘surprise’ spodumene find at Whim Creek
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Anax looks set to add lithium to the list of forward facing metals that are already known to be present at its 80%-owned Whim Creek project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Reconnaissance rock chip sampling at the Whim Maar prospect has identified spodumene in multiple pegmatites north of the Whim Creek Mine, an intriguing prospect as pegmatite outcrops have been observed over a 1.6km by 1km area.
Anax Metals (ASX:ANX) is just one approval away from resuming production of copper, lead and zinc concentrates at Whim Creek after securing the nod earlier this year to build a new 400,000tpa concentrator and in-pit tailings storage facility.
Copper is an essential ingredient in the energy transition thanks to its use in EVs, renewables and electrical infrastructure.
Separately, soil and rock chip sampling has defined multiple new gold and lithium targets at its wholly-owned Loudens Patch project.
“A large area of pegmatite occurrences at Whim Maar, as well as gold and lithium results from Loudens Patch, provide exciting new prospectivity for Anax’s Pilbara project portfolio,” managing director Geoff Laing said.
“Recent lithium discoveries in the Pilbara, including that by Azure Minerals at Andover show that high-grade lithium mineralisation is prevalent in the region.
“This provides Anax with further encouragement to investigate the significant lithium potential of its own portfolio while the Whim Creek Copper-Zinc Project enters a development phase.”
Lithium prospectivity
At the Whim Maar prospect, pegmatites were observed to be zoned, with massive quartz pegmatite cores being all that remains as low-lying outcrop across the flat terrain.
Notably, spodumene minerals were visible in and around the pegmatites with rock chips dispatched to the laboratory for processing.
At Loudens Patch, rock chip samples assaying up to 0.5g/t gold coincided with a +200m gold-in-soil anomaly while a +500m lithium-in-soil anomaly is associated with pegmatite outcrops in lithium in rock chips.
The road ahead
Besides the pending rock chip assays from Whim Maar, the company plans to geologically map the areas of pegmatite outcrop at these prospects to define the extent of the mineralised zones for follow up exploration.
Mapping and further soil and rock chip sampling may warrant drilling, once heritage management plans are approved.
This article was developed in collaboration with Anax Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
