Alchemy Resources to drill large anomalies at Karonie lithium project

Hot on the heels of promising lithium rock chip and soil sampling assays being received, Alchemy Resources (ASX: ALY) is about to kick off drilling at its Karonie gold and lithium project located 110km east of Kalgoorlie.

The 42 hole, 5,000-metre program has been designed to test a series of high priority large gravity anomalies at the Cherry, Hickory, Mesquite and Pecan prospects, over a 5km-long strike area.

Last week the company reported that assays from rock chip and soil sampling had confirmed the presence of surface lithium mineralisation at the Karonie project.

One rock chip assay returned 2,273 parts per million lithium oxide, 167 ppm caesium, 2,930 ppm rubidium and 62.8 ppm tantalum pentoxide.

Never previously explored for lithium

Alchemy has previously that this ground has never been previously explored for lithium in spite of favourable geology.

In addition, no drilling has ever been conducted in the area where the 12 rock chip samples pointed to the lepidolite and spodumene mineralisation.

Karonie lies just 8km from the Manna lithium discovery owned by Global Lithium (ASX: GL1), where the existing resource estimate stands at 32.7 million tonnes at 1.0% lithium oxide.

Mid-June start for drilling

Alchemy new pegmatite targets sit 2.5km north of a reverse circulation drill hole completed last November and which intersected spodumene at the Hickory prospect.

All approvals are in place for the drill program and heritage surveys have been completed.

The drill team will be on site in mid-June.

Chief executive officer James Wilson says the company is excited to be on the ground and about to test its priority targets.

‘We now have seven highly prospective targets, heritage clearance, a drilling contractor and ideal weather conditions,” he added.

Multiple areas of lithium mineralisation

The newly discovered pegmatite sits 2.5km north Hickory is at the southern end of a high priority gravity target which extends 2.5km toward the Pecan prospect where outcropping pegmatites have been mapped.

Multiple-element soil sampling conducted by Alchemy between 2018 and 2020 highlighted multiple areas of low-level lithium anomalism.

Follow-up soil sampling conducted this year have revealed a 12km by 6km zone of large-scale anomalies, with a second area of 3.5km by 3.5km showing similar anomalies.