Companies:

 

Articles:

 
Mining

CSIRO collaboration fuels Tambourah Metals’ lithium exploration at Russian Jack–Haystack Well

Go to Imelda Cotton author's page
By Imelda Cotton - 
Tambourah Metals ASX TMB CSIRO collaboration hyperspectral surveys
Copied

The CSIRO has prepared a report for junior explorer Tambourah Metals (ASX: TMB) that recommends expanding the company’s research and development program at the company’s Russian Jack–Haystack Well lithium project in Western Australia.

It highlights a zone of potential lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites on the margins of the Bonney Downs Monzogranite.

This structure is known to be associated with pegmatite-hosted occurrences of tin, tantalum and lithium.

Ongoing collaboration

The report is part of an ongoing collaboration between CSIRO and Tambourah involving the integration of advanced geospatial datasets with field sample data and machine learning to identify potential target zones at each project and significantly reduce the search space.

HyVista Corporation generated the data from new HyMap airborne hyperspectral imaging collected at Russian Jack–Haystack Well in August.

The work, which aimed to identify specific mineralogy related to LCT pegmatites, was supported by a $160,000 federal government research and development tax incentive payment.

Shaw River targets

Tambourah also utilised the new hyperspectral data to generate new exploration targets at the Shaw River tin project.

The work outlined large areas of outcrop and identified specific mineralogy related to LCT pegmatites.

Tambourah acquired the Shaw River tenement from Minrex Resources in July 2023, including the historic Shaw River tin field that has been mined extensively for alluvial deposits.

Historical production totalled 6,585 tonnes of tin and 548t of tantalite concentrates for 20.2t of tantalum oxide.

Rock chip grades

Tambourah reported grades of up to 3,660 parts per million lithium, 4,251ppm tin and 129ppm tantalum from 109 rock chip samples collected in February at the Old Shaw Creek and Shaw River areas near the north-western part of the tenement.

Most of the elevated lithium values were associated with biotite-bearing pegmatites, which are thought to be the primary source of tin and tantalum mineralisation.

Upcoming work at Shaw River will include field reconnaissance to map and sample the LCT pegmatites and define hard rock cassiterite (tin) drill targets.