St George tags lithium dragon at Mt Alexander

St George’s sleuthing work has uncovered high-grade lithium mineralisation within several stacked pegmatite dykes at its Mt Alexander project.

Results such as 1.97% lithium oxide (Li2O), 715 parts per million caesium, 166ppm tantalum and 13,765ppm rubidium, and 2.72% Li2O, 756ppm caesium, 60ppm tantalum and 11,530ppm rubidium were returned from sampling of dykes within the north-south trending Jailbreak Lithium prospect that extends up to 1.7km in length.

The results indicate that St George Mining’s (ASX:SGQ) belief that Mt Alexander might be part of the same pegmatite hosted lithium mineral system as Red Dirt’s (ASX:RDT) nearby Mt Ida lithium province.

This is further supported by the high levels of caesium, tantalum and rubidium, which are often associated with significant lithium deposits at depth.

While these results at Jailbreak are certainly encouraging, they further increase the prospectivity of the broader Mt Alexander tenure given that the interpreted north-south lithium-caesium-tantalum corridor extends about 15km with signs that the mineralised pegmatites are not constrained to the ultramafic unit.

“We are delighted that our visual interpretation of lithium-bearing pegmatites has been confirmed as accurate by the first batch of laboratory assays,” executive chairman John Prineas said.

“The grades and scale we are seeing appears to confirm that we are exploring a highly prospective pegmatite hosted lithium mineral system in its early stage of evaluation.

“We are in a very good address and look forward to commencing our maiden lithium drill program later this quarter. The fast-emerging lithium potential at Mt Alexander perfectly complements our continued search for more high-grade nickel-copper-PGE sulphide discoveries, which will also involve a drill campaign this quarter.”

Hot lithium address

While Mt Alexander was first pegged for its nickel-copper-PGE potential, the preponderance of lithium activity in the region such as Red Dirt’s pending maiden resource, Zenith Minerals’ start of drilling on lithium pegmatites and the location of Liontown’s large Kathleen Valley lithium deposit adjacent to the craton scale Mt Ida fault, highlighted its lithium potential.

That evidence of lithium has now been found within its extensive system of pegmatite dykes has galvanised the company to keep the momentum going.

Ongoing field mapping and sampling has already extended the interpreted east-west strike

length of visible lithium-bearing pegmatites at Jailbreak from 400m up to 1.4km while multiple pegmatite outcrops with visual lithium-bearing minerals are now identified up to 1km west of current assay results.

Results are also pending from more than 100 additional pegmatite samples from the interpreted 15km LCT corridor within the project area that have been submitted for assay.

Meanwhile, a soil survey has been completed over a large area of E29/962 where cover may mask extensions of pegmatite outcrops trending towards the Copperfield Granite.

However, the ultimate test will come from St George’s maiden lithium drilling program, which is scheduled to kick off in late October or early November.

This article was developed in collaboration with St George Mining, 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.