Critical Resources expands new Swell Zone at Mavis Lake lithium project

Lithium exploration and project development company Critical Resources (ASX: CRR) has confirmed that a follow-up drilling program around a recent breakthrough intercept has continued to validate and expand the Swell Zone at the Mavis Lake lithium project in Canada.

The company completed multiple drillholes targeting the 74.4 metre intercept which was first reported in July.

It is the widest interval of spodumene mineralisation recorded to date at the project and highlights its significant upside potential.

The intercept is interpreted to be associated with a new plunging trend and graded 1.18% lithium oxide, including 32.95m at 1.81% lithium oxide.

Thick mineralisation

Follow-up drilling encountered thick mineralisation and demonstrated consistency around the plunge theory at the Mavis Lake Main Zone.

It was designed to test the lateral, up-dip and down-dip extents of the newly-identified Swell Zone.

Assays from areas along the zone included 41.0m at 1.18% lithium oxide from 206.6m; 41.25m at 1.25% lithium oxide from 208.3m; 20.7m at 1.21% lithium oxide from 212m; 13.8m at 1.81% lithium oxide from 156.5m; and 13.3m at 1.56% lithium oxide from 343.9m.

This latter zone also demonstrated the presence of significant spodumene mineralisation at depth, which Critical said would continue to be tested.

High-grade lithium

Every drillhole was reported to have displayed localised sections of very high-grade lithium mineralisation grading above 2.2% lithium oxide, with two locations grading over 3.1% lithium oxide.

The intercepts are outside of the project’s current mineral resource envelope of 8 million tonnes at 1.07% lithium oxide.

They have extended the mineralisation at the Swell Zone by an additional 50m down-dip and 25m east and are expected to add significant tonnages to the next upgrade.

The western portion of the trend is a high-priority target area and has yet to be thoroughly drill tested.

Good results

Critical managing director Alex Cheeseman said drilling had delivered good results.

“We are on to something very exciting here and look forward to seeing the results from ongoing drilling, which is designed to extend the Swell Zone and underpin rapid resource growth that will give the Mavis Lake deposit further critical mass to underpin the development of a world-class mining operation,” he said.

“Apart from proving the swell theory — which in itself signals a key breakthrough in the scale and growth potential of Mavis Lake — these intercepts point to an immediate and significant increase in tonnage which will form part of a future resource upgrade.”

Mr Cheeseman said Mavis Lake had potential to become one of the largest, single-site, JORC-compliant lithium resources in Ontario.