Red Mountain Mining completes initial sampling at new Magante lithium project

Red Mountain Mining (ASX: RMX) has completed preliminary sampling at a recently-staked location in north-east Nevada known as the Magante project.

The work targeted multiple drainage locations, with a total of 53 samples collected as part of an initial investigation into the 199 claims which make up the project.

The sample targets were predominantly spaced 1 kilometre apart along broad sheetwash drainages to explore for anomalous lithium occurrences.

They will be delivered to Idaho-based ALS Global for lithium analyses and fast-tracked results are expected within the month.

Staking the claims

Earlier this month, Red Mountain staked the Magante mining claims in Nevada’s granite range, approximately 34 kilometres south-east of the township of Jackpot.

The project target is believed to be a Clayton Valley-type lithium clay deposit in volcanic tuff and tuffaceous sediments of the Jarbidge Rhyolite package.

Red Mountain said any commercial lithium discovery would likely be considered extremely valuable as the US races to catch up in the global battery metals race.

Nevada North project

Approximately 8km south-west of Magante, an initial discovery was recently made at the high-grade Nevada North lithium project owned by Surge Battery Metals.

The Toronto-listed company identified a strong mineralised zone of lithium-bearing clays which occupy a strike length of 1620 metres.

It reported an average lithium content of 3254 parts per million lithium for all near-surface clay zones.

More recently, drilling by Surge returned multiple zones of high lithium values ranging from 1000ppm to 8070ppm.

Surge has identified a number of similarities between Nevada North and the nearby $6.2 billion Thacker Pass mine owned by Lithium Americas and currently under construction.

Thacker Pass is renowned as the largest known measured and indicated lithium resource in the US.

Lithium riches

With its growing lithium riches, Nevada is proving to be a prolific mining destination.

Tesla is set to pour $5.6 billion into two manufacturing sites in the state, while General Motors is making a major investment in the Thacker Pass mine.