DMC Mining uncovers lithium potential at Fraser Range tenement package

A comprehensive review of historical geological and geochemical data for the Fraser Range tenements in Western Australia supports DMC’s observations that geological units might hold the potential to host pegmatites.

This is supported with pegmatite observations on geological maps and drill logs surrounding DMC’s (ASX:DMM) tenements.

DMM’s project is in close proximity to Liontown’s (ASX:LTR) Buldania Project, IGO’s (ASX:IGO) Nova Bollinger, and Essential Metals’ (ASX:ESS) Pioneer Dome Project.

More than 31,000 historical geochemical data points were reviewed from the region to develop a detailed understanding of some of the geochemical relationships.

These sample points covered all key geological units, contacts, and structures however only around 20% of these points fall within the DMC tenement package.

The areas of geochemical anomalies are expressed as a ratio for potential elevated Li relative to K (potassium) and Rb (rubidium).

Early indicators pave the way for further understanding

DMC executive chairman David Sumich says the company has taken advantage of the available exploration data to demonstrate additional exploration potential.

“Given the impressive size of the package in such a significant mineral province, these early exploration indicators will help the company refine targets to understand the extent of Li potential within the Fraser Range tenements,” he says.

“We look forward to continuing work on the Fraser Range tenement package to evaluate not only the Li potential, but in conjunction with the nickel-PGE targets.”

The process

Given the sparse geochemical data, spectral processing over the tenements was undertaken to understand if there is a spatial relationship between spectral responses and known surrounding lithium occurrences.

Sentinel-2 unmixing VNIR/SWIR imagery was used in multivariate analysis to classify each pixel and weight its lithium potential given the spectral responses relative to these known surrounding occurrences.

These classification methods incorporate the top 16 unmixed endmembers to known mineral absorption wavelength libraries from the United States Geological Survey.

The classes are defined at a pixel scale and 10m pixel resolution is available from the Sentinel-2 satellite.

What’s next?

These spectral targets were developed at a desktop level and will be further refined with field reconnaissance mapping where outcrops are present.

Given the tenements are primary targets for nickel-PGE exploration, lithium exploration will be incorporated into an overall exploration plan for a cost effective, outcomes focused field program to further improve knowledge of the Fraser Range tenement package.

This article was developed in collaboration with DMC Mining, 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.