Scorpion targeting initial 7.6–13.6Mt lithium resource at Youanmi

Scorpion Minerals has delivered an initial exploration target of 7.6 – 13.6Mt @ 1% – 1.4% Li20 for the central 900m of existing 2500m Youanmi mineralised trend
Further drilling is planned to infill central area target at 40x 40m spacing, plus test along strike and down dip existing 2,500m corridor
Next phase of exploration will include additional drilling, geological mapping, soil and geochemistry work

Scorpion Minerals has delivered a robust exploration target for the central 900m section of a lithium-rich 2500m corridor at its Youanmi project as the company advances toward a maiden resource.

Scorpion’s (ASX:SCN) is edging closer to a maiden lithium resource at Youanmi in the east Murchison region of WA, with its latest 2,202m 17-hole infill program confirming thick mineralisation along a 3km strike length with grades up to 2.66%.

Individual pegmatites are up to 1,000m long and surface exposures suggest widths from 5m to 15m, the company says.

8,000m of targeted drilling, plus extensive sampling and mapping over the past 12 months has provided the company with a vast amount of technical data.

Exploration Target for lithium mineralisation in central area at Youanmi

With a maiden resource in the works, Scorpion has released an initial exploration target covering just ~35% of the entire mineralised strike, meaning there is significant upside likely to join the company’s estimate at Youanmi.

The 7.6 – 13.6Mt target grading 1% – 1.4% Li20, only includes the upper and lower pegmatites in the central 900m of the existing 2500m strike tested by historic RC drilling.

It doesn’t include adjacent stacked pegmatites mapped and sampled that have limited or no RC drill testing to date.

Confirmed: Value, scale, and high grade nature

According to SCN CEO and former Galaxy executive Michael Fotios, the exploration target “clearly shows the potential scale and high-grade nature of the project.”

“This exploration target is an important step in demonstrating the potential value of the Youanmi Project, as it binds together a significant amount of work completed to date including over 8,000m of drilling and extensive sampling and mapping,” he says.

“Importantly, this initial Exploration Target covers only ~35% of the entire mineralised strike identified to date at Youanmi, which supports our view that this system will continue to grow considerably with further drilling.

“We are currently in the process of integrating this into our maiden JORC resource estimate for the project.

“Drilling so far has shown that mineralisation remains open in all directions at Youanmi, and we are confident that further drilling in the near-term will add to this initial Exploration Target range.”

What’s next?

The plan for Scorpion now is to undertake the following exploration programs over Q4 2023 and Q1 2024:

Infill RC drilling of existing exploration target at 40m x 40m spacing
Diamond drill testing of exploration target and initial metallurgical test work
Extensional RC drilling of exploration target down dip and along strike
RC drilling of parallel pegmatites to determine extent and composition
Follow up geological mapping and rock chip sampling
High resolution airborne photography if required
Auger soil geochemistry aimed at identifying additional pegmatites under shallow soil cover
Initial Diamond drill testing of existing targets at depth
Airborne and/or Ground EM surveys