Pan Asia speeding up lithium resource definition at ‘compelling’ Reung Kiet

Pan Asia has moved to double shift drilling at its Reung Kiet lithium project in Thailand to accelerate definition of a mineral resource.

This follows the arrival of the second drill crew earlier this week after undergoing required protocols and testing related to COVID-19, which the company said has not affected its operations.

Pan Asia Metals (ASX:PAM) had decided to move to double shift drilling after initial assays from drilling at the Bang I Tum and Reung Kiet prospects returned results such as 11.3m grading 0.74% lithium oxide from 19.2m, 10.7m at 0.98% lithium oxide and 4.2m at 1.3% lithium oxide.

“Our drilling results from Reung Kiet are quite compelling, the intersection widths and lithium grades at both prospects position the company well, warranting a second drilling shift and the required investment to drill out to a JORC mineral resource,” managing director Paul Lock said.

“Lepidolite is the only style of lithium mineralisation with an extensive suite of byproducts which, based on peer group studies, have the potential to place lepidolite style projects at the bottom of the operating and capex cost curves.

“At the end of the day this is not just about tonnes and/or grade, it’s also about cost of production, this is why we are focusing on lepidolite.”

Reung Kiet

Pan Asia is targeting lepidolite style lithium at its Reung Kiet project about 70km northeast of Phuket within a known tin mining region.

Exploration to date has identified consistent high grade lepidolite in pegmatites across a strike of more than 2.5km.

Notably, the company’s drilling has intersected extensive pegmatite dyke-vein swarms up to 100m wide.

Lepidolite projects are known for their low cost thanks to the extensive suite of by-products that reduce the overall cost of lithium chemical manufacturing.