TG Metals continues to grow lithium opportunity at Lake Johnston
TG Metals (ASX: TG6), whose share price has risen more than 800% over the last month, has identified another large lithium anomaly with new exploration activities at the company’s Lake Johnston project in Western Australia.
In late October, TG Metals reported high-grade hits of up to 2.28% lithium oxide in initial drill testing of the large Burmeister lithium soil anomaly.
The company subsequently followed up those promising results by defining a new area of lithium in soils anomalism, identified as the Jaegermeister prospect, even larger in scale than Burmeister.
Significant strike length and width
To date, TG Metals has assessed Jaegermeister as a 100-plus parts per million lithium oxide soil anomaly with approximately 5.7km of strike and 2.3km of width.
Initial work has suggested that it forms part of a major lithium geochemical trend that crosscuts the Lake Johnston greenstone belt.
Chief executive officer David Selfe said Jaegermeister appears similar to Burmeister, where the host lithologies are considered critical in the formation of spodumene-rich pegmatites.
He said TG Metals now believes the Jaegermeister lithologies are also similar to the sequence that hosts the Earl Grey lithium deposits 105 km to the west, within the Southern Cross greenstone belt.
Earl Grey has an estimated resource of 186 million tonnes at 1.53% lithium oxide at a 0.5% lithium oxide cut-off.
Accelerated drilling program
With this favourable assessment, the company is now stepping up preparations for a maiden drilling campaign in the first quarter of 2024.
“Since the discovery of the spodumene pegmatites at Burmeister, the deposit models we have been considering have been based on the Earl Grey lithium mine area,” Mr. Selfe said.
“With this in mind, the lithologies at Jaegermeister were always going to be a target. The current drilling at Burmeister […] will provide knowledge we can apply to the Jaegermeister area and provides us with another quality drill target for early 2024.”
“We are eagerly anticipating the next drilling results from Burmeister which we expect assays back in the next 2 weeks.”
Targeting pegmatites
At Jaegermeister, TG Metals is targeting pegmatites with soil values greater than 46 parts per million lithium, the successful model used at Burmeister.
Work to date has found that the anomalies defined are extensive and open to the north and south providing further potential within TG Metals tenements. The anomalies have also extended parts of the Burmeister anomaly further east.
In the lead-up to the initial drilling program, an infill soil sampling to refine drill locations and test unexplored ground to the south will also be conducted, commencing in late November.
Further progress
The Q1 2024 drill testing will be designed as a first pass over the defined high tenor lithium contours.
Full approvals for drilling are expected in Q1 2024. Drill rigs will already be on site and will be deployed onto the Jaegermeister prospect as soon as approvals are gained.
Meanwhile, a Phase 2 reverse circulation drilling program continues at the Burmeister lithium discovery with samples to be dispatched to the laboratory regularly and the diamond drill rig deployed as required for drill hole extensions.