Liontown Resources unveils 86% increase to lithium resource at Kathleen Valley
Liontown’s new resource for Kathleen Valley totals 139Mt at 1.3% lithium and 140ppm tantalum.
Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR) has unveiled an updated resource for its Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia, with the new resource representing an 86% increase on the previous estimate.
The new resource for Kathleen Valley now totals 139 million tonnes at 1.3% lithium and 140 parts per million tantalum.
This is expected to generate 1.8Mt of lithium or 4.5Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent and 43 million pounds of tantalum.
According to Liontown, 58% of the updated resource is classified as measured or indicated, with the entire resource an 86% increase on the previous estimate of 74.9Mt at 1.3% lithium and 144ppm tantalum, which was released mid-last year.
“Once again, Kathleen Valley has delivered for Liontown shareholders,” managing director David Richards said.
“With the recent results from extensional drilling, it became apparent that we were on track to materially exceed our published exploration target.”
“In light of this, we have decided to publish this interim resource update, which clearly demonstrates that Kathleen Valley is a tier one lithium-tantalum deposit,” he added.
Liontown noted that the resource would be further updated to include ongoing drilling, which is due to finish at the end of the month.
“Once all the data from the remaining drilling has been collated, we will estimate a final mineral resource next month that will form the basis of our definitive feasibility study,” Mr Richards said.
“Based on the success of our drilling, we are increasingly confident that the definitive feasibility study will encapsulate both a high-grade underground mine in parallel with an open pit, establishing the foundations for a new long-life, high-quality Australian lithium-tantalum mining operation,” he added.
The resource substantially exceeds Liontown’s extension exploration target of 25-50Mt at 1.2-1.5% lithium.
Kathleen Valley is located in WA’s eastern goldfields and is in proximity to existing transport, energy and camp infrastructure.
Additionally, the mineral resource is located on granted mining leases.
Liontown’s shares lifted 11% in early morning trade to $0.11.