Lithium Power International Limited (LPI) has announced the completion of its reverse circulation (RC) drilling stage at its East Kirup lithium project on E70/4763.
In a statement, LPI said ten holes totalling 573 metres of drilling were accomplished. A total of 960m was planned, but a few holes had to be cancelled due to environmental concerns. The majority of the holes were finished to a depth of 54 metres.
Several two-metre quartz, pink potassic feldspar, biotite, and tourmaline zones were discovered. According to LPI, they could be pegmatites because they were found in a gneiss and granofel package.
The East Kirup Prospect has shown lithium anomalism in the soil, with findings reaching 232 ppm lithium (GS10448) at GBRC001, and has the same metamorphic grade and rock types as Talison’s Greenbushes mine.
Castle Drilling, which specialises in accessing difficult terrain with minimal environmental impact, completed the program. The company used a compact, self-contained drill rig, which didn’t require any additional trucks. It was outfitted with dust extraction equipment, which produced minimum dust.
According to LPI, the average daily drilling depth was 58m because of the caution required to navigate the narrow forest tracks, avoiding injuring trees or the need to prune them. Accessing the holes took just as much time and work as drilling.
LPI said its exploration crew was also mindful of groundwater, and drilling was done in such a way that only two holes required storage sumps, limiting the amount of water reaching the surface.
The RC drilling component is being followed by 400m of HQ core-sized diamond drilling, which began on 13 January and is expected to be finished by the end of January.
The East Kirup prospect is situated 20 km north-west of the Greenbushes Lithium Mine along the Donnybrook Shear Zone, which is home to the lithium-bearing pegmatites at the Greenbushes Mine.
“We are delighted with the RC drilling progress and results so far. The work has been carefully planned and conducted in accordance with an approved Conservation Management Plan (CMP). We look forward to the results of the diamond drilling program that is underway,” LPI Executive Director Andrew Phillips said.
E70/4763 is still being explored. A mapping and sampling campaign will begin next week at the Thomas A Prospect, which is an area of arsenic anomalism that is a proxy for lithium in the Greenbushes region and has previously been surveyed for pegmatites and surface kaolinite.
