Assays are coming: Tambourah wraps up drilling in Shaw River lithium hunt

TMB has completed a 13-hole, 1,260m lithium drilling program at Shaw River
The program tested recently identified pegmatite outcrops, with assays pending at the time of writing
The project historically produced tin and tantalite up until 1975
Mapping and sampling continues at the time of publishing

Tambourah Metals has completed RC drilling on mapped pegmatites at its historical Shaw River mining area in the Pilbara region of WA in search of new mineralised systems and lithium.

Shaw River is part of the Shaw River tin field which, by 1975, produced 6,585t of tin and 548t of tantalite concentrates (containing 20.2t of Ta2O5).

There is no previous record of lithium exploration at the project, with this new 13-hole, 1,260m RC drill campaign testing pegmatites found in recent reconnaissance sampling and mapping.

Tambourah believes these pegmatites to be the primary source of the tin and tantalum mineralisation at Shaw River.

Notably, Shaw River is also 20km from the Tambourah gold and lithium project where just last week, Tambourah wrapped up the first drilling at the World Fairs prospect since the 1900s.

Tambourah Metals ASX TMB — Shaw River’s location. Pic via TMB

It’s been an eventful year thus far for the explorer, which rerated in July after announcing a tie-up with global lithium producer SQM (NYSE:SQM). It was the same month Tambourah Metals (ASX:TMB) purchased Shaw River and several other lithium exploration projects from Minrex Resources (ASX:MRR).

SQM will spend up to $3m on exploration to earn up to 70% of TMB’s early stage Julimar North project in WA – a strong endorsement of Julimar North and its lithium potential, the company says.

The US$20bn capped SQM has also inked deals with other Aussie juniors, most notably Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS).

In January, SQM paid $20m for a 19.99% stake in Azure, which then went on to uncover a potentially monstrous deposit at Andover.

Prior to making its monster lithium discovery, Azure observed tantalum and caesium in the pegmatites at its Andover project in the Pilbara.

According to Azure, the Andover complex was exploited in the 1950-60s for tin and tantalum by artisanal miners.

Samples taken from that time period, later donated to the Museum of Western Australia’s Simpson Mineral Collection, were and assessed to include tantalite, as well as spodumene and lepidolite by Azure geologists.

Shares in Azure have rocketed more than 1,000% since January off the back of high-grade lithium assays taken from Andover. At the time of publishing, Azure shares were trading at $2.47/share.

Review of alluvial mining dumps under way

All drill samples from Shaw River have been sent to Perth and results will be expected within six weeks, alongside the lithium and gold drill results from the nearby Tambourah goldfield.

Further sampling and mapping is continuing at several locations at the Shaw River project where there are outcropping pegmatites.

In addition, an extended review of the alluvial mining dumps has also commenced, and sampling will include testing for the potential economic recovery of lithium, tin and tantalum.