Alchemy Resources commences lithium-focused drilling campaign at Karonie project
Alchemy Resources (ASX: ALY) has commenced a drilling campaign targeting multiple high-priority targets at the Karonie lithium-gold project in Western Australia.
The campaign will comprise 42 holes for a total 5000 metres over the next three weeks.
It will evaluate high-tenor lithium pathfinder targets at the Cherry, Hickory, Mesquite and Pecan prospects along a 5.4 kilometre gravity anomaly corridor which features an extensive system of interpreted pegmatites identified by field mapping, high-resolution gravity surveys and soil sampling.
The prospects are located approximately 8km to the south of the Manna lithium deposit owned by Global Lithium Resources (ASX: GL1) which has an existing resource estimate of 32.7 million tonnes at 1.0% lithium oxide.
They include areas of outcropping pegmatites with spodumene and lepidolite which have previously returned assays of 2723 parts per million lithium oxide, 167ppm caesium, 2930ppm rubidium and 62.8ppm tantalum oxide from 12 rock chip samples.
Drilling plan
Alchemy plans to drill up to 132m downhole, with spacings of 80m to provide adequate crossover to establish dyke orientation.
Additional holes have been designed to test the Taupo North target, which sits 3km to the west of Hickory and has pegmatites logged in historic holes which have not been previously assayed for lithium.
Karonie location
The Karonie project comprises four applications and 10 granted exploration licences spread across 1200 square kilometres of highly-prospective Archaean greenstones in the state’s eastern goldfields.
It is located along strike to the south of the Bombora deposit owned by Breaker Resources, which was bought out in May by gold producer Ramelius Resources (ASX: RMS).
It also surrounds the Aldiss Mining Centre owned by Silver Lake Resources (ASX: SLR) with a resource of 600,000 ounces at 2.0g/t.
Alchemy is focusing its near-term exploration efforts towards the discovery of additional high-grade gold mineralisation at Karonie.
The company has confirmed the ground has never been previously explored for lithium in spite of favourable geology.
In addition, drilling has never been conducted in the area where the rock chip samples pointed to lepidolite and spodumene mineralisation.