• NIS has added another six areas of lithium interest at its Carlingup project to take the total lithium targets to 28
  • The company has teamed up with major battery metals producer Allkem to assess the project’s lithium prospectivity
  • Works now under way at four higher-priority targets

 

NickelSearch has found six new areas of lithium interest at the Carlingup project in WA – taking the total to 28 areas of interest for Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum (LCT) pegmatites identified to date.

 

 

In September, the explorer teamed up with major lithium producer Allkem (ASX:AKE) to assess the lithium prospectivity of Carlingup, about 10km from AKE’s 140,000tpa Mt Cattlin lithium mine.

Notably, Allkem also recently flagged latent capacity at Mt Cattlin to potentially toll-treat third party product – which could bode well for the company if Carlingup’s lithium potential is confirmed.

Back in April, an independent geochemical review highlighted the lithium potential at Carlingup, identifying 22 areas of LCT pegmatite potential.

Now further review and targeting work across a larger portion of the project area has flagged another six areas of exploration interest.

 

Looking for lithium across the tenement package

“The Carlingup project has already demonstrated that mineralised spodumene pegmatites exist on NIS tenements in a region hosting an economic spodumene operation,” NickelSearch (ASX:NIS) managing director Nicole Duncan said.

“We are stepping out from the initial target areas to assess the lithium potential across NickelSearch’s lithium tenement package, using the combination of geology, geochemistry and geophysics to define our areas of exploration.

“We also will analyse areas where pegmatites have been logged historically but not sampled for lithium.”

NickelSearch has now commenced a program of work at the four higher-priority targets, consisting of geological mapping, rock chip sampling and infill soil sampling.

Planning for the systematic appraisal of the remaining areas of exploration interest is ongoing, with a number of these areas earmarked for further work in the coming weeks.

 

NickelSearch ASX NIS
Lithium areas of interest: ultra-fine soil samples over satellite imagery. Source: NIS.

 

Quarry dewatering on the cards

NIS has also kicked off a stream sediment sampling program to test the area to the east and south-east of the quarry, where high-grade lithium up to 5.19% Li2O has been confirmed within spodumene-bearing pegmatites.

These grab samples were taken from stockpiles of rock material extracted from the quarry, and their original in-situ location within the pit is not known.

Preliminary mapping in and around the quarry where the high-grade lithium results were returned indicates that there are preserved pegmatite outcrops within the quarry walls.

To access a small portion of the quarry at the northern end that is filled with water, the company plans to commence a dewatering program that is expected to take 2-3 weeks to complete.

This should allow the NIS and Allkem geological teams to safely access the walls and base of the pit for geological mapping and in-situ sampling.

In addition, the company has commenced reviewing historical exploration data for evidence of potential lithium host rocks and mineralisation, looking for any geological and/or geochemical indicators of pegmatites which may have been intersected in previous drilling – that can lead to the identification of even more areas of exploration interest for lithium.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with NickelSearch, 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.

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