• Iran finds a fresh deposit of the battery metal in the Hamedan province
  • Galan Lithium kicks off drilling program at Greenbushes South project
  • GT1 picks up an 80% stake in the Junior Lake project next door to Seymour

 All your ASX lithium news for Monday, March 6.

 

Iran has announced the discovery of its first lithium ore deposit in the western province of Hamedan – and it contains around 8.5 million tonnes of lithium ore in clay.

“Of ore” is the key here. It is not 8.5Mt lithium, which is what half of Twitter is saying.

As way of comparison, Arizona Lithium’s (ASX:AZL) Big Sandy clay project contains 32.5 million tonnes of ore grading 1,850 ppm lithium.

Iran’s maiden lithium resource seems ok regardless, but grade and depth — in fact, almost everything else — remains unknown.

Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade (MIMT) official Ebrahimali Molabeigi, who leads MIMT’s exploration department, said more lithium ore deposits are expected to be discovered in the province, which is rich in clay deposits that are a source of battery metal.

Molabeigi also expressed hope that Iran could reach a cost-effective method of production from the deposit, with demand for the metal rising in global markets.

Here’s how ASX lithium stocks were tracking today:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

A total of 40 stocks were in the green, 54 were flat and 43 were red.

 

Who has news out today?

GALAN LITHIUM (ASX:GLN)

Drilling is underway at the company’s Greenbushes South lithium project in WA, on tenement E70/4790, which is just 3km south of the Greenbushes lithium mine.

This maiden 2,500-metre drilling campaign is testing targets identified from soil sampling and ground geophysics.

The company says its team on site have noted multiple minerals associated with lithium- bearing pegmatites close to the surface.

“These results, along with the proximity to the Greenbushes Mine and to the mineralising Donny-Brook Bridgetown Shear Zone are very encouraging,” GLN said.

 

GREEN TECHNOLOGY METALS (ASX:GT1)

The explorer has signed a binding option agreement to acquire an 80% stake in the Junior Lake project adjacent to its flagship Seymour project in Ontario, Canada.

The 109km2 project hosts three drill-ready lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite prospects – Despard, Swole Lake and Tape Lake, which were identified from previous exploration.

The have similar geology to Seymour, which lead to the discovery of new proximal lithium discoveries that could grow the Seymour resource base – currently 9.9Mt at 1.04% Li2O.

This could in turn provide additional feedstock for a lithium concentrate plant at Seymour.

“We are excited to secure the agreement with Landore, adding a sizeable tenement package to our portfolio and look forward to commencing exploration on the Junior Lake Project which offers the company a unique combination of a close proximity location, identified targets through previous regional exploration and early indications of similar geology to our flagship Seymour Project,” CEO Luke Cox said.

“We plan to commence exploration activities imminently at Junior Lake as we look to grow our resource base for greater Seymour and move swiftly into development.”

 

CORE LITHIUM (ASX:CXO)

Drilling as part of the company’s ongoing Finniss lithium operation exploration program in the NT has led to a more than doubling of the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at the BP33 deposit from 4.37Mt at 1.53% Li2O1 to 10.1Mt at 1.48% Li2O2.

BP33 is the second proposed mine at Finniss currently awaiting development approval.

“Importantly, BP33 remains open at depth,” CEO Gareth Manderson said.

“Exploration to extend mine life at Finniss and identify growth opportunities is a priority for the business, with an expanded drilling program for CY23.”

Core says there are further growth opportunities beyond currently modelled resource domains at Carlton, Ah Hoy, Hang Gong and Sandras and an update to the global Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve Estimate for Finniss is now underway.

 

GLN, GT1 and CXO share prices today:

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Galan Lithium and Green Technology Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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