Re-assays firm up lithium potential at Leeuwin’s Jenpeg project

ASX newcomer Leeuwin’s re-assaying of historical drilling has confirmed the presence of high-grade lithium at its Jenpeg project in Manitoba, Canada.

The first two historical holes sampled returned intercepts of 20.59m grading 1.23% Li2O from a down-hole depth of 29.87m (XL-10) as well as 8.29m at 1.13% Li2O from 31.69m and 15.12m at 1.4% Li2O from 73.6m including 11.8m at 1.63% Li2O from 76.2m (XL-22).

While these historical holes targeting pegmatites had been tested for tin and tantalum, confirming the presence of lithium-caesium-tantalum type pegmatites with visible spodumene, they were never assayed for lithium.

That Leeuwin Metals’ (ASX:LM1) re-assaying has proven the presence of lithium confirms the potential for Jenpeg to be a large-scale lithium project with over 6km of known pegmatite swarms.

Lithium mineralisation is also relatively shallow and open in all directions.

“These are exceptional results and confirm the Jenpeg project to be a highly attractive opportunity with significant upside for Leeuwin shareholders and believe these results represent the discovery of a new lithium district within Manitoba,” managing director Christopher Piggot said.

“It is particularly pleasing that this project was the direct result of our own internal project generation, which underscores our commitment to exploration success in metals that are critical to the global energy transition.

“With our William Lake nickel project and the Jenpeg lithium project, our shareholders have significant exposure to critical metals exploration in Manitoba.”

Lithium assays

Both XL-10 and XL-22 were drilled in the early 1980s by Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada.

The recent results confirm the company’s belief that the region has the potential to be a significant lithium district.

This provides Leeuwin with plenty of room to move given that Jenpeg covers over 600 km2 of applications in a greenstone belt.

Jenpeg also includes the aptly named Spodumene Island, which while relatively untested, has two channel samples of 7m at 1.7% lithium and 7m at 1.45% lithium that are about 3.6km apart.

With summer approaching, the company plans to carry out ground exploration with a focus on additional rock chip and channel sampling, detailed geological mapping and utilising remote sensing tools.

This work will look to define the large scale lithium opportunity in a region that has previously not been subject to lithium exploration.

Discussions are ongoing with the Manitoba Government and Geological Survey for sampling additional historical drill holes located at the Winnipeg Core library.

This article was developed in collaboration with Leeuwin 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.