Galan Lithium honing in on new Greenbushes South targets

Multi-jurisdictional battery metals explorer and developer Galan Lithium (ASX: GLN) is confident it has a much better understanding of the geology in place at its high-profile Greenbushes South project in Western Australia’s south-west.

Located in close proximity to the world’s largest hard-rock lithium mine, Greenbushes, Galan’s project has naturally attracted a lot of outside interest.

Since Galan grabbed an initial 80% stake in the project in January 2021 before moving to full ownership in mid-December 2022, much of the company’s focus has been on desktop studies of Greenbushes South geology, while at the same time as it has progressed its flagship Hombre Muerto West (HMW) lithium salar project in Argentina.

Exploration model validation

Much of Galan’s desktop work focus has been on the creation of an exploration model for the large Greenbushes South project area and the company says that assay results from its extended maiden diamond drilling program have helped to validate its initial target identification work.

The creation of that exploration model involved the use of novel geophysical methods for identifying blind pegmatites at depth and the rock types associated with spodumene mineralisation in the approximately 315 square kilometre tenement.

Whilst Galan has not detected any significant lithium mineralisation to date, it says the drilling results will allow it to be more focused and targeted in future exploration activities.

Maiden drilling campaign extended

Galan elected to commence its maiden drilling work at Greenbushes South in an area designated as “Fry’s Block” due to that location’s favourable land access, previously identified high lithium concentrations in soils and outcropping pegmatites.

Prior to drilling Galan trialled three ground-based geophysical methods within the prospect.

After completing the initial planned maiden diamond drilling campaign at Fry’s Block, Galan elected to add a second phase to validate the exploration model provided by the geophysical and drilling results, while taking advantage of the logistics, mobilisation and continued availability of the drilling team.

Phase two drilling included three additional diamond drill holes and a further 1,385 metres of drilling for a total of 8 holes and 3,885 metres of drilling.

The assay results found that in general that while the pegmatite intersected was not significantly enriched in lithium, caesium, and tantalum to an extent which is consistent with ‘mineralised’ LCT pegmatites or granite, they did identify a trend towards some enrichment in these elements.

This, along with other observations, has suggested to the company that the pegmatite cannot be disregarded as genetically unrelated to the Greenbushes pegmatite at this stage.

Planning for next drill campaign has commenced

Galan is now working on creating additional targets for its next Greenbushes South drilling campaign.

It has already commenced discussions to obtain strategic land access in the region and has been successful to date in reaching an agreement which will allow its exploration activities to continue closer to the Donnybrook-Bridgetown Shear Zone that hosts the emplacement of the lithium-bearing pegmatite at Greenbushes.

Galan now plans to engage with specialist consultants NewGen Geo to develop another geophysical campaign and a new calibration of the previous drill core data.

The aim is to identify density characteristics within potentially new host rocks and targets and provide further geophysical targeting.