Krakatoa intersects thick pegmatite below 4.3pc lithium rock chip at King Tamba

Krakatoa Resources’ drilling intersects thick, 39m wide pegmatite at King Tamba
Result sees now completed program expanded from 1,200m to 1,806m
Assays pending for the drill program

Special Report: Krakatoa Resources has completed drilling at its King Tamba project in WA’s Mid West region, which has been expanded after the intersection of a thick pegmatite with a width of up to 39m under the target area.

The drilling targeted the MGM, Loader and Wilsons prospect, the last of which has been defined to have a mineralised area of 1.3km by 500m with 250m of continuous outcrop where rock chipping returned results of up to 4.3% Li2O, 1.7% rubidium and 0.5% caesium.

Originally seen as a rubidium play after Krakatoa Resources (ASX:KTA) defined a maiden resource of 5Mt grading 0.14% rubidium with lithium credits in March this year, subsequent exploration indicated that lithium at the 42km2 project is prospective in its own right.

This is unsurprising as the Dalgaranga greenstone belt that King Tamba sits in is well known for hosting enriched gold, zinc, base metals lithium and rare earth deposits related to pegmatites.

“Exciting news for investors that we hit a connected peg that runs underneath all 3 prospects that carry high grade Li at surface. KTA’s King Tamba is immediately adjacent to a tantalum deposit not dissimilar to $1B WC8.” executive chair Colin Locke tell Stockhead.

Discovering the battery metal also has another benefit for the company.

While gallium – used in semiconductors and high-technology equipment in a range of industries – has been in the headlines recently after China announced export controls on the element and germanium, lithium still has far greater visibility with investors, ensuring that any such discovery will pique interest.

Potential for a whole lot more lithium

The company’s recently completed drill program to explain the source of lithium-rich greisen altered pegmatites evident on the surface has now uncovered evidence that the battery metal might be far more common at King Tamba.

Krakatoa Resources (ASX:KTA) — Drill collar locations in relation to the three prospects. Pic: Supplied (KTA).

Its 1,200m drill program of between 12 and 15 holes was expanded to a 16-hole program totalling 1,806m after intersecting a thick pegmatite of up to 39m thickness below the 4.3% lithium rock chip at the Wilsons prospect.

Of these 16 holes, 13 intersected pegmatites hosted in a mixture of dolerite and fine-grained metasediments.

While the pegmatites intersected at shallow depths were generally 2-5m in thickness and somewhat discontinuous along section, a significant pegmatite with true thickness up to 30m was encountered at 70-90m vertical depth underlying the full extent of the target area.

Additionally, there was a general trend of increasing pegmatite frequency towards the southeast of the target area.

However, KTA notes that while fractionated pegmatites are commonly associated with lithium and niobium mineralisation, the presence of appreciable quantities of mineralisation can only be confirmed by laboratory assaying.

Searching for more

Besides waiting on assay results, KTA will work on interpreting the observed geology and updating the existing 3D pegmatite model plus additional reconnaissance within the identified LCT corridor.

This has the potential to find more target areas as the area drilled to date represents a small area of the 3km long corridor.

The company may also carry out geophysical logging of selected boreholes.

This article was developed in collaboration with Krakatoa Resources, 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.