Auroch plants its flag on prime lithium ground in Nevada

Auroch has wrapped up the acquisition of its 80% interest in the Nevada lithium project, strategically located some 340km from Tesla’s Reno Gigafactory.

The project consists of four prospect areas – Traction, San Antone, Heller and Lone Mountain – which cover 65km² of ground that is highly prospective for large sedimentary-hosted lithium deposits.

It is also located close to the silver mining town of Tonopah within a mining-friendly jurisdiction in Nevada that is also home to multiple large sedimentary-hosted lithium deposits including Ioneer Resources’ Rhyolite Ridge and American Lithium Corporation’s TLC project.

Auroch Minerals (ASX:AOU) has already planned out a work program that includes a site visit in July and an initial drill campaign scheduled for the next quarter.

“We are extremely pleased to have completed the 80% acquisition of the Nevada Lithium Project in such a short amount of time,” managing director Aidan Platel said.

“The NLP covers the same geological formation that hosts very large lithium deposits in the region, including the TLC Lithium Project nearby, and so we are very excited by the potential of the NLP to host significant lithium mineralisation in a stable pro-mining jurisdiction in Nevada, US.”

Executive chairman Mike Edwards added that the acquisition is a critical and defining next step for the company as it seeks to extract maximum value from its nickel and non-nickel assets.

“The company is well funded, and the team is looking forward to commencing exploration in Nevada as well as continuing work on our advanced Western Australian nickel assets,” Edwards noted.

Nevada Lithium Project

The four prospect areas that make up the NLP each cover large areas of the mapped Siebert Formation, a lacustrine sedimentary rock unit that has formed in and around calderas, and hosts other large lithium deposits in the region.

Lithium mineralisation is believed to occur as a result of lithium-enriched brines being absorbed by flat-lying, ash-rich caldera lake sediments such as the Siebert Formation.

These sediments were subsequently taken out of the water table by faulting, which removed the brine while leaving behind the lithium-enriched clay areas.

Despite this, the NLP has seen very limited lithium focused exploration to-date.

Surface soil sampling of the prospect areas has returned grades of up to 590 parts per million lithium whilst historical water bores drilled in and around the NLP areas have logged a similar sedimentary host rock formation over 73m thick.

The areas of anomalous lithium at surface and thick horizons of the target host rock have significant potential for large-scale lithium mineralisation and will be the focus of the initial exploration and drill programmes in the coming months.

This article was developed in collaboration with Auroch Minerals, 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.