Industrial Minerals Ltd (ASX: IND) has agreed binding terms with North West Quarries Pty Ltd (NWQ) for the exclusive option to acquire an 80% interest in the non-construction material mineral rights, including lithium and HPQ, at the Pippinagarra Quarry Project near Port Hedland.
The project is located within world class Pilbara lithium province of Western Australia and near some of the world’s largest hard rock lithium mines. IND hold several tenements in the region that are prospective for HPQ and lithium, making the addition of this project a logical expansion of IND’s activities in the Pilbara region. In addition, IND has also recently applied for further tenure proximal to the Pippingarra Project.
IND’s managing director Jeff Sweet commented: “IND is pleased to have secured a highly prospective project amongst meaningful lithium discoveries in the Pilbara region. “The deal we have secured with North West Quarries gives IND exposure to assess the lithium and HPQ potential of the pegmatite units in the project while allowing North West to continue with their quarrying activities within their existing granite pit, south of the prospective pegmatite units.
IND has secured an exclusive option to acquire an 80% interest in the non-construction material mineral rights (including lithium and High Purity Quartz (HPQ)) to the operating Pippingarra Quarry (Granted Mining Lease, M45/258).
Historical close-spaced drilling has defined over 2km of flat lying pegmatite, that is on average 200m wide and 20m thick, under very shallow cover and remains largely untested for lithium despite historical mining of beryl and columbite (which are both indicator minerals of LCT type pegmatites).
The pegmatite is open in all directions and the current defined extent of pegmatite is a function of drilling completed to date. Furthermore, of the 38 diamond holes drilled by previous owners, only one drill hole was assayed for lithium and it intersected 6m at 3.73% Li2O from 26m in a vertical diamond hole (PDDH55). Based on visual assessment, only 6m of the 20m pegmatite interval in that hole was assayed.
To date, no other intervals from this drill hole or from any of the other 442 drill holes across the project have been assayed for lithium. RC and diamond exploration programme being devised to determine the extent of the pegmatite and its lithium mineralization potential. Multi-purpose drill rig secured.
The project is on a granted mining licence and located 30km south-east of Port Hedland, 19km north-east of Wildcat Resources (ASX: WC8) Tabba-Tabba Lithium Project, 55km north-west of Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) Pilgangoora Lithium Operations and 69km north of Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) Wodgina Lithium Operation.
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