Pan Asia Metals receives more high-grade lithium assays from Reung Kiet drilling campaign
Pan Asia’s strategy is to develop low cost lithium and tungsten projects, including downstream processing, on South East Asia’s electric vehicle doorstep.
Pan Asia Metals (ASX: PAM) has received assays from a further 10 holes drilled at the Reung Kiet project in southern Thailand, which returned up to 1.18% lithium, along with potentially valuable by-products tin, tantalum, rubidium, caesium and potassium.
The company unveiled a maiden resource for the project at the end of last month, which totals 10.4 million tonnes at 0.44% lithium, 0.04% tin, 0.009% tantalum, 0.16% rubidium and 0.02% caesium for 113,027t of contained lithium carbonate equivalent.
Drilling has continued at the project, with the aim of increasing tonnage and upgrading inferred resources to indicated and measured categories.
The mineralised zone has been defined over 1km of strike and remains open to the north, south and at depth in many sections.
A highlight interval from the latest assay batch was 5.5m at 1.16% lithium, 613 parts per million tin, 142ppm tantalum, 0.39% rubidium, 425ppm caesium and 2.66% potassium.
Another result was 8.8m at 1% lithium, 643ppm tin, 116ppm tantalum, 0.35% rubidium, 369ppm caesium and 2.84% potassium.
Pan Asia managing director Paul Lock said the company continued to be “pleased” with the latest assay results from Reung Kiet.
Reung Kiet lithium project
Reung Kiet is one of Pan Asia’s key projects and contains lepidolite-hosted hard rock lithium.
The project was previously mined for tin in the early 1970s.
At the project, Pan Asia plans to continue drilling to update the mineral resource, which will be used as part of a scoping study that is evaluating initial annual production of 10,000t of lithium carbonate equivalent and associated by-products.
Unlike the majority of hard rock lithium miners which extract lithium from spodumene, Pan Asia is focused on lepidolite as a lithium source.
According to Pan Asia, peer group studies indicate lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide projects that use lepidolite as feedstock could come close to the bottom of the cost curve.
Pan Asia noted lepidolite also has a lower carbon emission intensity than other lithium sources such as spodumene.