Eye on Lithium: Lithium recovery looking more certain

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• Lithium carbonate spot prices climb
• Anson increases footprint of Paradox project
• Morella starts drilling to define pegmatite extent at Kenny

All your lithium news, Wednesday May 10.

There are growing signs that the lithium market could be about to turn around with lithium carbonate spot prices gaining some 5.48% today to 192,500 yuan ($41,063).

This view has been reinforced by Morgan Stanley analysts who noted that lithium sentiment in China is improving as inventory levels fall and actual supply growth in 2023 has disappointed.

Chinese electric vehicle sales and battery production are also growing again leading Morgan Stanley to express its belief that the lithium market will become tighter for the rest of this year.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence had noted last week that prices had stabilised towards the end of its assessment period from 19 April to 3 May.

Here’s how ASX lithium stocks are tracking:

Lithium stocks on the ASX were relatively balanced with 47 companies making gains weighed against 41 in the red. The remaining 61 companies were essentially unchanged.

WHO’S GOT NEWS OUT?

Here’s a selection of news out from lithium plays today.

Anson Resources (ASX:ASN)

The company has increased the footprint of its Paradox lithium brine project in Utah by 28% to 214km2 after acquiring 586 claims abutting the northwestern edge of the project area.

This covers the lithium-rich aquifers in the northern area of the Paradox Basin and is expected to increase both Inferred and Indicated resources at the project.

Anson is currently planning to drill the Mineral Canyon and Sunburst wells to sample the thick Mississippian units, and the Pennsylvanian clastic horizon.

These wells will deliver additional data that will be used to upgrade and expand the existing JORC Resource.

Evergreen Lithium (ASX:EG1)

Evergreen’s maiden soil auger geochemistry program has identified five priority target zones prospective for lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites at its Kenny project east of Norseman, Western Australia.

These zones have returned strong lithium values of up to 250 parts per million (ppm) Li2O along with pathfinder elements such as beryllium, caesium, potassium and lanthanum.

Further geochemical analysis is being carried out to assess the potential for the project to host other critical minerals such as rare earths.

ioneer (ASX:INR)

Ioneer has reached a commercial offtake agreement partnership with Dragonfly Energy Holdings to strengthen US battery supply chains and invest in the production and manufacturing of Nevada-sourced lithium.

Under the agreement, Dragonfly will offtake at least some of the company’s lithium carbonate production for a three year period from when its Rhyolite Ridge project is fully completed and capable of producing and delivering product to customers who have annual commitments to purchase in excess of 3,000tpa.

The lithium carbonate will be used in Dragonfly’s proprietary dry powder coating cell manufacturing process to produce solid state lithium-ion batteries that are safer, smaller and less expensive than conventional batteries.

Rhyolite Ridge South Basin currently has a resource of 360 Mt containing 3.4 Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent and 14.1 Mt of boric acid equivalent.

Morella Mining (ASX:1MC)

Drilling to better understand the extent of known pegmatites and infill areas with information gaps has started at Morella’s Mallina project in WA’s Pilbara region.

The 40-hole totalling about 3,000m will comprise of extensional/development drilling based on previous drilling campaigns, as well as the testing of several new targets defined by mapping and surface sampling.

Previous drilling had returned a 16.4m intercept at 1.24% from just 4.6m.

Results from the current drilling program are expected in the third quarter of 2023.

Recharge Metals (ASX:REC)

Recharge has started exploration to delineate – for the first-time ever – lithium mineralisation at the Express project in Quebec’s emerging James Bay region.

Express project is around 12km southeast of Allkem’s James Bay deposit and 15km northeast of Cygnus Metals’ Pontax lithium project.

The company is currently focused on identifying prospective target areas for pegmatite hosted lithium mineralisation.

This will include the commissioning of multispectral analysis, analysis of publicly available geophysical data and the probable acquisition of LiDAR and high-resolution aerial imagery.

Redstone Resources (ASX:RDS)

Redstone has expanded its Attwood Lake project in Ontario, Canada, by 33% to 7.393 hectares after staking an additional four claims to merge the two original claim groups into a single contiguous tenure.

The company has first acquired the project, consisting of the Witchwood and Greenside claim groups that cover 3,026 hectares and 2,546 hectares respectively, earlier this month.

Numerous deposits that host significant Li2O have already been delineated in the region such as Green Technology Metals’ Seymour Lake and Root Lake‐McCombe lithium deposit.

Planning is underway to allow for the Phase 1 exploration program to begin as soon as possible.

Winsome Resources (ASX:WR1)

Drilling at Winsome’s Adina project in Quebec’s James Bay region has identified a new lithium-bearing pegmatite dyke swarm in the footwall of the deposit.

Notably assays include 23.2m grading 1.02% Li2O from 253m, 21m at 1.1% Li2O from 260.6m and 15.4m at 1.57% Li2O.

This new zone changes the potential endowment at Adina and could increase the likelihood of developing a viable lithium operation.

Winsome also noted that drilling in the Main Zone of mineralisation continues to return strong lithium intersections such as 42.8m at 1.71% Li2O and 18.7m at 2.25% Li2O.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Anson Resources, Ioneer and Recharge Metals are Stockhead advertisers, it did not sponsor this article.

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