Southeast Asia’s leading lithium explorer Pan Asia Metals (ASX:PAM) reports that latest assays at its Reung Kiet hard rock project in Thailand demonstrate extensions at depth from the existing mineral resource.
Reung Kiet is located 70km northeast of the resort city of Phuket.
The company says that, with the release of the last eight assays from the drilling program, that program is now complete, with the new data to be incorporated into an updated mineral resource estimate that will be released next month.
It was in December 2021 that Pan Asia reported the breakthrough news that first exploration had confirmed an “extensive” lithium mineralised zone with “robust” thickness and grades.
Next step: mining studies
Reung Kiet is an old tin pit, 500m long and 125m wide, with a depth of about 20m. the mine operated into the 1970s.
The latest assays results include 11.15m at 0.95% lithium oxide, 0.05% tin and 171 parts per million of tantalum pentoxide; 11m at 0.66% lithium oxide, 0.11% tin and 137 ppm tantalum; and 14.7m at 0.78% lithium, 0.1% tin and 138 ppm tantalum.
Managing director Paul Lock says that once the mineral resource estimate is complete, the company can begin work on mining studies which will be incorporated into a pre-feasibility study and mining licence application.
“We are excited that drilling has commenced at the Bang I Tum prospect which could potentially have a larger inventory and/or higher grades than the Reung Kiet lithium project, based on the current exploration target,” he added.
Exploration in tandem with work on downstream processing
On Friday, Pan Asia reported that it had entered into a preliminary agreement to investigate building a stand-alone lithium conversion plant in Vietnam.
As part of its strategy to become a force in the Southeast Asia rechargeable battery market, Pan Asia signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup to work with the latter’s subsidiary VinES Energy Solutions to establish the facility which would allow the partner to enter downstream lithium processing.
