Lithium minnow Hannans fell 24 per cent on Wednesday after results from its Forrestania project in Western Australia failed to meet investor expectations.

Forrestania is 400km east of Perth, close to sites owned by the world’s biggest lithium producer SQM, as well as ASX-listed Kidman Resources.

Hannans shares had been suspended at 2.1c since Friday pending a drilling update from the lithium project. On Wednesday investors sold down the shares to 1.6c after the update.

The explorer earlier responded to an ASX speeding ticket when its shares shot up to 1.8c on October 13. (The company was unaware of any non-public information that could explain recent strong trading.)

In Wednesday’s announcement Hannans (ASX:HNR) took the unusual step of telling investors it “would not normally request a halt in the trading of its shares to provide time to interpret early stage exploration results.

“The company would normally summarise these results in a general project update or Quarterly Report.

“On this occasion however, the board considered it prudent to request a halt to ensure the market was trading on a fully informed basis.”

Hannans told investors its recent second phase exploration drilling at Forrestania appeared to intersect a fertile peraluminous granite.

That kind of fertile source rock is important when exploring for pegmatites that host lithium, according to Hannans.

However, the results failed to excite investors — the stock closed at 1.6c, down 24 per cent.

The news followed an encouraging first phase of drilling which intersected pegmatite rocks prospective for lithium mineralisation.

Hannans will next explore the relationship between the lithium anomalies intersected in the first drill program and the granite intersected in the second drill program.

Hannans will also update the geological model generating the next round of drill targets and obtain government approvals to complete third phase of drilling.

Hannans has a market cap of around $27 million.