Two new exploration licences granted to Tambourah Metals will expand Pilbara lithium hunt

Tambourah Metals (ASX: TMB) has been granted two new exploration licences to bolt on to its Russian Jack lithium project in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia.

The project area has now grown to around 250 square kilometres in size and the new Russian Jack tenements E46/1420, and E46/1423 adjoin existing granted tenements E46/1409 and E46/1410.

These are located around 247km southwest of Port Hedland, and 25km south of Nullagine.

Lithium mineralisation has been identified on the northern contact of the Bonney Downs Granite and the lithium association is characteristic within the Pilbara region.

“The granting of these two exploration licences will provide the impetus for accelerated lithium exploration within this large tenement package,” Tambourah executive chairperson Rita Brooks said.

First pass mapping and sampling completed

The company has also released new assay details from first pass mapping and sampling in the northern portion of the project.

Rock chips returned up to 1,420 parts per million lithium, while field mapping has identified pegmatites from 1m to 20m wide.

The 1,420ppm lithium sample was sourced from a 10m wide pegmatite, with further mapping planned to define the full extent of the pegmatites at this location and also identify new targets.

Ms Brooks said the initial pegmatites sampled from Russian Jack are “very encouraging” and demonstrate the potential for the company’s tenure to host pegmatite swarms.

“The Split Rocks Supersuite is the engine room of the East Pilbara for the emplacement of pegmatites,” Ms Brooks added.

She said securing the tenements allows Tambourah to implement a project-scale exploration program that will start with the hyperspectral data analysis followed by site location and further sampling of prospective pegmatites and eventually drilling.

The project is described as hosting Archaean aged rocks of the eastern portion of the Pilbara craton.

The landholding is also within younger granites (the Bonney Downs Granite) of the Split Rock Supersuite – a monzogranite which is chemically similar to other prospective post-tectonic granites within the craton.

Other projects

Also located in the Pilbara, the company is exploring for gold at its Tambourah and Cheela projects.

In the northeast goldfields, Tambourah is looking for nickel-platinum group elements-copper-gold at its Achilles project.

And in the Julimar North region, where Tambourah is the second largest tenement holder, the company has commenced exploration for nickel-PGE-copper-gold.