Everest Metals Corporation Limited (ASX: EMC) has obtained promising results of an initial drilling programme at the Mt Edon mining lease (M59/714) near Paynes Find, Western Australia.
“EMC is pleased to announce its decision to exercise its right to farm into the Mt Edon LCT Pegmatite Project, subject to Shareholder approval,” Chief Operating Officer, Simon Phillips, said.
“The company is pleased to have the opportunity to take the next step towards 51% ownership in a project with such an extensive array of pegmatite outcrops over 6km.
“The recent reconnaissance drill program gave EMC the data it needed to commit to the next stage of exploration at this highly fertile pegmatite field as part of the ompany’s commitment to its Battery Minerals project development strategy.”
Mt Edon mining lease (M59/704) is located five km southwest of Paynes Find and covers the southern portion of the Paynes Find greenstone belt, southern Murchison and hosts an extensive swarm of pegmatites. The geology of the area consists of metamorphosed sediments present with regional greenschist and amphibolite facies metamorphism which foliated, deformed, and recrystallised granitoids intruding Archean ultramafic and felsic to mafic extrusive.
Late pegmatite dykes/ sills intrude the mafic and felsic volcanics in a contrasting position to the regional orientation of the northeast- southwest.
The company has determined to exercise its exclusive option to farm-in to acquire the right to earn a 100% interest in the Mt Edon Project 5km from Paynes Find in Western Australia – subject to due diligence and shareholder approval1. EMC has funded a due diligence work programme including a targeted 500m reconnaissance RC drilling programme to determine whether to proceed with the farm-in.
Reverse Circulation (RC) holes for a total of 507m of drilling was completed in late October 2022. The drilling was conducted from 8 drilling fence lines and included 24 shallow holes with an average depth of 21m.
Sampling collected during the recent drilling were one-metre core splits from RC drilling and 129 samples were sent to the ALS laboratory in Perth. Samples were assayed for a standard multi-element LCT pegmatite suite including rare earth elements using the process of a 4-acid digest followed by Lithium Borate Fusion ICP-MS for detection.
Assays returned encouraging results with elevated Rubidium (Rb) up to 3,670ppm, Caesium (Cs) up to 354ppm, Tantalum (Ta) up to 219ppm, and Lithium (Li) up to 1220ppm. The maiden drilling program determined the subsurface lithium-bearing potential of the Project area below the weathered zone and indicated that pegmatites have moderate to strong fractionation characteristics.
Interpretation of results from the recent drilling program has confirmed the pegmatite samples are anomalous in terms of rare metals by a median factor of around 14 times higher than background host rock and suggest that there are several prospective targets for lithium-bearing pegmatites within the Project area. Pegmatites appear to be a folded sill dipping into variable directions and angles and connected at depth.
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