White Cliff Minerals Limited (ASX:WCN) has signed a binding agreement to acquire Abraxis Mining Pty Ltd, which holds three adjacent tenement applications covering 294 sq. km in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
“The acquisition of Abraxis, which holds three tenement applications considered highly prospective for lithium, expands the company’s Western Australian lithium and REE project portfolio,” White Cliff Technical Director Ed Mead said.
“While the Abraxis Lithium Project area has been subject to sporadic historical exploration, primarily focused on tin and gold, it has had limited modern exploration.
“Of note, both Riversgold Limited and QX Resources Limited have projects straddling the Tambourah Monzogranite roughly 15km to the east of Abraxis.
“We are look forward to being the first company to focus on the lithium potential on the project area and getting on the ground as soon as possible.”
The Abraxis Lithium Project covers an area of ~294 sq. km, approximately 170km south of Port Hedland and is accessible via the Great Northern Highway, which transects the two western tenements that make up the project area.
The majority of the Abraxis Lithium Project area is comprised of gently rolling hills covered in spinifex grass.
Geology
The Abraxis Lithium Project is located within the East Pilbara Granite-Greenstone Terrane of the Pilbara Craton which is characterised by large granitic complexes flanked by greenstone belts comprised of steeply dipping sequences of volcano-sedimentary rocks.
The Abraxis Lithium Project sits on the Elizabeth Hill Supersuite (Igneous Granitic) intrusion of 3068Ma age. To the west of the Abraxis Lithium Project, the granite is overlain by the Kylena Fomation, a massive, amygdaloidal, and vesicular basalt and basaltic andesite, with local komatiitic basalt, dacite, and rhyolite. To the east, the project area covers the Tambourah Monzogranite, a 2851Ma (Igneous Granitic) intrusion, that is successfully being targeted for lithium by contiguous tenement holders.
Lithium potential
The White Springs 1:100,000 Geological map indicates a substantial proportion of E45/6111 and /E6112 are underlain by the unit AgYlpe and additionally AgYlnpe on E45/6112.
The legend defines these units as: AgYlpe Medium to coarse-grained leucogranite with abundant sheets, veins, and bodies of pegmatite.
AgYlnpe Medium to coarse-grained leucogranite with locally abundant granitoid gneiss xenoliths and locally abundant sheets, veins, and bodies of pegmatite. These units have not been explored for their lithium or pegmatophile element potential.
Historical exploration at Abraxis Wamex recorded exploration amounts to 46 stream and rock chip samples collected by Fortescue Metals Group in 2010-14.
Asbestos mining was reported at the White Range prospect within E45/6112, being from ultramafic xenoliths within pegmatitic granitoid; GSWA collected three rock chip samples within this tenement and on E45/6111; six were collected from E45/6133 for the purposes of lithochemical fingerprinting. Proposed work programme
The company will commence remote satellite interpretation of pegmatites within the tenement and surrounding areas with a ground truthing and sampling exercise to commence upon the completion of the interpretation.
For further information please visit: https://wcminerals.com.au/
