Patriot Lithium Limited (ASX: PAT) has provided an update on the progress of exploration activities at its wholly-owned Wickenburg Project in Arizona, USA.
Patriot CEO and MD Mr Nicholas Vickery commented: “It is very encouraging to see positive signs from early exploration activities on the Wickenburg Project. The pegmatite trends identified during the previous reconnaissance work have now been verified by these excellent rock chip and soil sampling results. Our consistent strategy has been to discover high-grade hard rock lithium deposits, through modern and systematic exploration techniques, and the Wickenburg Project has started strongly. We look forward to following these promising results with drilling, which is due to commence imminently.”
Highlights from the update include reports that selective spodumene samples collected from the weathered Dove West lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite at the ‘Main Pit’ of the historic Dove pegmatite mine have returned grades of up to 5.88% Li2O1.
Rock chip samples from LCT pegmatites along the Dove West, Dove East, and Mammoth trends have returned numerous anomalous results greater than 0.01% Li2O, which, due to intense surface weathering and leaching of these rocks, is considered anomalous. A peak lithium-in-rock chip value of 1.35% Li2O has been returned from the ‘Lower Cut’ at the historic Dove pegmatite mine.
X-ray diffraction (XRD) has confirmed the presence of spodumene at both the southernand northernmost outcrops of the Dove West pegmatite, suggesting the pegmatite could be mineralized along much, or all, of its mapped strike length of ~440m.
Soil sampling has identified zones of significant lithium, caesium and tantalum anomalism over the Dove, Mammoth and Vulture pegmatites as well as new target areas. Lithium-insoil values range from below detection to a maximum of 510ppm Li.
Mapping has also further expanded the prospective LCT pegmatite swarm and identified new promising pegmatite targets, expanding the priority exploration area to ~2km by 2km.
Finally, additional claim staking has added 148 new lode mining claims to the Wickenburg Project. The new claims cover newly identified pegmatites as well as pegmatites mapped by the Arizona Geological Survey.
To find out more, please visit www.patriot-lithium.com
