It is lithium, not gold, that has got De Grey Mining (AU:DEG) investors excited, with high-grade hits reported on Monday from scout drilling along the 7.5km-long King Col trend.

The wide-spaced RC drilling for 1,648m over just 2km of the trend returned 17m at 2.55% Li2O from 13m, 8m at 1% Li2O from 27m and 1m at 8.63% caesium oxide from 25m, indicating a series of stacked moderately thick and south dipping lithium enriched pegmatites bodies.

The trend is restricted to the west by the Turner River, but untested to northeast along strike and down dip, and De Grey exploration manager Phil Tornatora theorised the early drilling could have identified the “tip of the iceberg”.

“It’s certainly a significant initial discovery given that we have only tested a very small portion of the overall 7.5km King Col trend,” Tornatora said.

“We have the world-class Pilgangoora and Wodgina lithium deposits located only 40km to the south, so we are clearly in an exceptional lithium province.”

He said the drilling had defined a high potential zoned lithium-caesium-tantalum-style pegmatite just 60km from Port Hedland, and the company was considering a new programme on the area, including initial diamond core drilling, backed with detailed mapping and soil sampling of untested 5.5km strike.

The King Col pegmatite trend lies within De Grey’s 100% owned tenements, and was identified with reconnaissance mapping, surface rock chip and soil sampling, leading to 22 RC holes at the south-western end of the trend, which is partially funded under the WA government’s exploration incentive scheme.

The holes were drilled 40m apart on five lines 200m to 600m apart.

The high lithium, tantalum and caesium values, together with the presence of petalite and lepidolite, clearly show that the King Col pegmatite system is fertile for lithium-bearing minerals, De Grey said.

The junior’s shares were up 6.8% in morning trade to A$0.235 (US$0.19), having run up dramatically from $0.06 in late September on the strength of the emerging Pilbara gold story and the discovery of almost 100 nuggets at Loudens Patch.

The company argues the conglomerate gold story is merely additional to its more conventional Indee development plans.

Created from mining-journal.com