GRE is scoping the court for new lithium pegmatite trends at its West Pilbara projects using historical datasets. Pic via Getty Images
Pilbara’s next lithium MVP? Azure neighbour GreenTech is onto a ‘very big system’ at Kobe
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- GreenTech Metals is up 270% year to date thanks to exploration success and a touch of nearology
- Azure Minerals’ Andover lithium discovery is a stone’s throw from GreenTech’s underexplored Ruth Well tenements in the Pilbara
- The Kobe trend features semi continuous pegmatites and high-grade lithium in rock chips along a 7.5km strike; more trends have been identified
GreenTech has exposure to a range of critical minerals and battery metals needed for society’s electrification, but its lithium opportunity in the Pilbara is having investors cheer for more from their court side seats.
Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) spinout GreenTech Metals (ASX:GRE) made its ASX debut in January 2022, focused on finding large critical minerals deposits across its combined 225km2 West Pilbara portfolio.
Chief among its initial prospects was the 6.2Mt Whundo project where, in May, the junior uncovered a 19m-thick copper zone at the Austin prospect, with grades up to 5.4% copper.
Austin is a separate mineralising event to the overlying Whundo East resource, the company says. Based on the footprint of the conductor, the company says Austin could potentially eclipse Whundo East in size.
The stock rerated in response to the news.
Around the same time, market darling Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) began a drilling blitz at its Andover lithium discovery, a stone’s throw from GreenTech’s underexplored Ruth Well tenements.
Azure’s success culminated in a second rerate of the $30m capped GreenTech, which is now up ~270% year-to-date.
‘Very big system’
Sitting down with Stockhead, GreenTech managing director Thomas Reddicliffe said it was Azure’s success – which culminated in an exploration target for 100-240Mt at 1-1.5% Li20 – that led to GreenTech’s decision to take a closer look at the lithium potential on its own ground.
Delving a little deeper into historical datasets, the company came across evidence of lithium bearing rocks.
“We went and had a look, found pegmatites and we sampled them and got some very good initial results like 1.8% Li2O,” Reddicliffe said.
“We traced our initial discovery – the Kobe trend – for 7.5km along a semi-continuous zone with pegmatites all along it and that makes us quite excited, the fact that down one end of the system we can pull up 1% lithium oxide and another 7kms away down the other end, we can pull 1% lithium assays in the rocks as well.
“This is a very big system, and the good thing is it’s not the only one….further south there looks like another trend is evolving.”
A recent reconnaissance field mapping program tracked the ground and confirmed the presence of significant pegmatite swarms in the Northern and Southern trends with a suite of rock chip samples waiting analysis at the laboratory.
The Northern LCT pegmatite trend, which includes GreenTech’s initial Kobe discovery, lies within the company’s wholly owned Ruth Well tenure and extends eastward into the Osborne joint venture (JV) it shares with Artemis Resources.
Close by, the Southern LCT pegmatite trend is housed within the Osborne JV tenure and has been mapped over a strike length of 2.5km. This is where high-grade rock-chip samples returned 2.3% and 3.63% lithium oxide in late July, piquing early market interest.
Lithium discoveries ignite exploration activity in the Pilbara
The Pilbara region is a hotbed of lithium activity at the moment, attracting juniors explorers including Accelerate Resources (ASX:AX8), Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN), Errawarra Resources (ASX:ERW) and Golden State Mining (ASX:GSM) who hope “nearology” might work in their favour.
GreenTech’s discoveries are a short 20km outside of Karratha with plenty of logistics support and infrastructure within close proximity.
“We’re very excited to find ourselves in the middle of what is essentially a lithium rush up there,” Reddicliffe said.
“In this part of the world, the West Pilbara, there is a lot of metal…just about anything you want is occurring there and while it used to be regarded as more of an iron ore hub, explorers are now finding the region is ripe for VMS deposits and lithium, essentially in the same area so it is a great place to operate.
“We haven’t joined all the dots between us and Azure – and we’re not saying there’s a continuous line of pegmatites, but what we have is what Azure initially had – high-grade rock chips, and pegmatites at surface.
“One of our problems will be picking and choosing where we are going to drill first so it may take a while to get to the best spot, as it did for Azure. It is just methodical exploration.
“Once we get our heritage clearance out of the way, we can move in and start drilling, hopefully sooner rather than later and preferably before it gets too hot.”
What’s next?
GreenTech’s field teams have been working continuously for the past six weeks or so finding and sampling pegmatites, awaiting results from the lab.
“Our permitting is completed, and we are now in the process of finalising the heritage survey to get the last clearances done, which would then allow us to go in and get the drill rigs drilling,” Reddicliffe said.
“We’d like to think we would have to be terribly unlucky for such long strike lengths of 7km or more to not have something of interest at depth once we drill.”
This article was developed in collaboration with GreenTech Metals, 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.
