Oceana is hoping that its lithium drilling program at Solonópole will score well. Pic: via Getty Images
Oceana’s ready to test the lithium potential of its Solonópole project
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Oceana has kicked off a 3,000m scout drilling program to test near-surface lithium mineralisation at its Solonópole project in Brazil.
Reverse circulation drilling will initially focus on the pit area of the Bom Jesus de Baixo pegmatite where high-grade lithium spodumene mineralisation has been identified before moving to test two other pegmatite outcrops.
Oceana Lithium (ASX:OCN) notes that these three linear outcrops lie over a combined east-west strike length of more than 500m.
This first phase drilling is being carried out on a 20m by 20m grid to assist in determining the actual pegmatite dimensions and dip at each location as well as the lithium grade and mineralogy.
Infill drilling will then be carried out to determine if the pegmatites are linked.
Napperby exploration
Meanwhile, a hyper spectral survey completed at its Napperby project in the Northern Territory has confirmed previously mapped pegmatite outcrops with reasonable accuracy and revealed several potential new major pegmatite dykes that were unmapped by previous government and third party work.
Field work is ongoing to determine the true nature of a number of geological features – including several large northwest-southeast striking bodies with strike lengths of more than 1km and widths over 250m – that have been highlighted by the survey but do not coincide with previously mapped pegmatites.
Soil geochemistry completed in September 2022 and followed up in February 2023 had highlighted several zones of lithium anomalism which are open-ended and require closing off with future infill sampling.
This includes an outstanding target zone with a strike length of 5.5km and width over 1.5km which is in contact with what field observations confirm is an equigranular biotite rich granite.
Oceana plans to follow up at Napperby with infill soil sampling lines to close off the lithium anomalies and better define targets ready for drill testing.
It will also carry out detailed mapping over areas where an early outcrop discovery is possible within this type of terrain.
This article was developed in collaboration with Oceana Lithium, 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.
