Gold Mountain jumps up a gear at Brazilian lithium play

Gold Mountain has highlighted its focus on its Brazilian lithium foray by committing to the exploration earn-in stage of the joint venture to secure a further 55% interest.

Under the earn-in stage, the company can earn the additional interest in the projects by spending $2.75m on exploration over a two-year period.

It follows rock chip sampling over the Juremal, Custodia and Porta D’Agua project areas confirming the presence of lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) type pegmatites.

Gold Mountain (ASX:GMN) noted that 10 rock chip samples assayed over 100 parts per million Li2O, which given the leaching and weathering of outcropping rocks is considered anomalous and warrants follow up sampling.

The results also show that trace elements related to LCT pegmatites vary in abundance between project areas and within project areas which the company believes is partially a function of pegmatite field zoning and the differences between pegmatite fields.

As a result, both Gold Mountain and vendor Mars Mines believe that LCT pegmatite bodies can be readily defined on these tenements and that drill targets can be rapidly identified with a concentrated mapping and sampling program.

“This is a good start for the Mars Mines and Gold Mountain JV. These results combined with the results we announced in November 2022 for the Juremal and Custodia projects show that the tenements we have picked up have the potential to host LCT bearing pegmatites,” chief executive officer Tim Cameron said.

“This is early days in our exploration program, but it is encouraging to see several anomalous rock chip results returned from the initial reconnaissance program with samples assaying up to 0.08% Li2O.

“I am especially encouraged by the statement by the Mars geologists that with additional mapping and rock chip sampling both the Juremal and Custodia projects can be rapidly advanced towards drill testing.”

‘Encouraging results’

The results for Juremal and Custodia are considered by Mars Mines geologists to be very encouraging and indicate that with focused mapping and sampling campaigns, they could rapidly be progressed to the drilling stage.

Over at Porta D’Agua, the samples were of fresh rock from one pegmatite and show that, although the pegmatites are LCT type, the sampled pegmatite is not in the highly lithium productive zone that may exist in the large swarm of pegmatites confirmed on the ground.

Gold Mountain noted that it is likely that more fractionated pegmatites do occur in the tenement and a planned stream sediment sampling program will assist the company in identifying them.

It added that only a very small portion of the JV project area has been visited to date, making the discovery of LCT pegmatites at this stage very encouraging.

This article was developed in collaboration with Gold Mountain (ASX:GMN), 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.