An estimated 65,000m is planned to be drilled in 2023. Pic via Getty Images.
Latin’s resource drilling delivers more high-grade goods at Salinas ahead of MRE upgrade
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Latin Resources has flagged yet more high-grade results from resource definition drilling at its Salinas Lithium project in Brazil – providing a nice boost to the company’s confidence in a ‘significant’ resource upgrade in June.
Mineralisation has now been defined over an area of one kilometre by one kilometre to a depth of 400m below surface and the pegmatite swarm remains open in all directions and at depth.
The latest results include:
- 14m at 1.55% Li2O from 323m (SADD078), including: 5m at 1.99% Li2O from 323m;
- 12.59m at 1.46% Li2O from 274.46m (SADD080);
- 16.92m at 1.36% Li2O from 242.48m (SADD081); and
- 27.15m at 1.45% Li2O from 237m (SADD082).
The campaign is progressing well, with the company completing 32,000m in 109 diamond drill holes to date of the planned 65,000m resource definition diamond drilling.
Mineral resource upgrade on track for June
Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) says the ongoing expansion of the Colina lithium pegmatites, as well as the strong correlation seen between drillholes and drill sections, provides increased confidence of the potential to significantly grow the existing 13.2Mt at 1.2% Li2O Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
“We continue to see great results coming out of the resource definition drilling at our Colina Deposit,” geology manager Tony Greenaway said.
“The consistency in both the pegmatite thickness and lithium grades is extremely encouraging, bolstering our confidence to be able to deliver what we believe will be a significant upgrade to the Colina mineral resource in June.
“We are very focused on finding the extents of the rapidly growing system at Colina, where the pegmatite swarm remains open in all directions.”
The newly discovered Colina West prospect now has six of the eight rigs drilling 24 hours a day to enable the resource upgrade to be completed on time.
“Drilling is progressing very well, and we are on track to close off our drilling database in mid-May to enable the JORC Resource estimation process to commence in June,” Greenaway added.
Test work and Salinas South drilling planned
In addition to the current resource definition drilling campaign, the company has completed regional mapping activities focused around the Salinas South tenement 17km to the south-west of Colina where the previous seasons’ exploration work identified a ‘lithium corridor’ extending across 4km.
The completed new mapping has identified initial drill targets with drilling expected to commence in May/June.
On the test work from, Heavy Liquid Separation (HLS) test work has already returned exceptional recoveries of over 80.5% of lithium recovered in a concentrate grading up to 6.6% Li2O, so the next step for Latin is Dense Media separation (DMS) pilot plant and float metallurgical test work – scheduled to begin in Q3 2023.
This will be followed by hydrometallurgy test work to produce final sulphate and other lithium products ahead of the planned Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS).
This article was developed in collaboration with Latin Resources Limited, 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.
