Kula is poised to start its drill performance at Kirup. Pic: via Getty Images.
Kula is setting the stage for drilling at its Kirup project near Greenbushes
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- Drilling for lithium at Kirup due to start in September
- Mustang to be the first prospect to be tested
- Work also underway to progress Cobra Prospect towards being drill-ready
Kula has penned in a September start for drilling at its Kirup lithium project just 20km west of the giant Greenbushes mine in WA with the intriguing Mustang prospect being the first cab off the rank.
Mustang is located in the northern part of E70/5452 and hosts a number of north-northwest striking pegmatitic bodies within an area with a strike length of 1km and width of about 200m.
Kula Gold (ASX:KGD) is also progressing the Cobra prospect, which has a strike of 2km and width of more than 300m, towards being drill ready whilst its ongoing mapping and sampling have identified the new Falcon and Thunderbird prospects.
“The Mustang prospect is our first target for RC drilling at the Kirup Project next month, which Kula is fully funded to complete,” chief executive officer Ric Dawson noted.
“The Cobra prospect is advancing to drill stage with additional mapping with potential LCT suite mineralisation, testament to the lithium prospectivity being uncovered in this world class lithium region.
“The new Falcon and Thunderbird prospects are adding to the new and exciting potential for world class LCT mineralisation.”
The road to drilling
Kula has been keen to get to drilling at its Kirup project, which along with its Brunswick project, covers about 417km2 of prime lithium exploration ground within 20km of the Greenbushes mine, which meets a significant portion of the world’s lithium demand.
Both projects are located within prospective magnetic structures, and host unexplored pegmatite outcrops.
Reconnaissance mapping and sampling first detected bladed spodumene and pegmatite at Mustang, granting the company with a walk-up drill target to test for LCT mineralisation beneath the weathered zone, which is expected to be from 15m to 50m as is evident at Greenbushes.
Meanwhile, pegmatites assaying up to 240 parts per million (ppm) lithium have been mapped at Cobra with mapping continuing to increase its potential dimensions.
Rock chipping and mapping at the prospect have also allowed the company to submit additional samples for geochemical sampling, which returned high levels of beryllium, niobium and tin – all excellent pathfinders for LCT mineralisation.
Mapping at Cobra also identified the Falcon prospect on a different orientation and separate structure.
This has been mapped with a strike length of about 1.8km and width of up to 300m.
The company also identified the new Thunderbird prospect in the southern part of the permit after it ground truthed pegmatites that were previously mapped by the state government and submitted samples to test for LCT mineralisation potential.
More broadly, assaying of pegmatite rock chip samples have provided Kula with early indications of wide, multi-body and locally fractionated pegmatite systems which have the potential to host lithium mineralisation where the pegmatites are intruded into more prospective host lithologies within the adjacent country rock at the Kirup project.
Adding further prospectivity, the company noted that 38% of the collected samples recorded a K:Rb (potassium to rubidium) ratio of less than 150, which is a favourable indicator of fractionated pegmatites, while 46% of the samples recorded a favourable Nb:Ta (niobium to tantalum) ratio of less than 5.
Rising activity levels
The Greenbushes region has been heating up in recent months.
During the June 2023 quarter, IGO, which owns part of the Greenbushes mine, carried out reconnaissance field mapping across the Bridgetown Greenbushes project – where it is earning up to 70% from Venus Metals – with the goal of identifying lithium-bearing pegmatites.
Meanwhile, Lithium Power International (ASX:LPI) sold its subsidiary Western Lithium to Albemarle – another Greenbushes partner – for $30m in June 2023 while Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) purchased 20% of the Greenbushes South project from Lithium Australia (ASX:LIT) for $3m back in December last year, which implies a $15m enterprise value for the whole project.
Current and upcoming activity
Kula has progressed planning for exploration drilling at the Mustang prospect with RC drilling expected to start in September.
It is also continuing to carry out work aimed at advancing the Cobra prospect towards becoming drill-ready.
This article was developed in collaboration with Kula Gold, 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.
