During the March quarter, Lightning Minerals Ltd (ASX:L1M) continued to progress its portfolio of projects, with a focus on previously identified areas of interest at the Dundas and Mailman projects in Western Australia and at the Dalmas and Hiver projects in Quebec, Canada.
Additionally, after the quarter’s end, the company announced that it is acquiring highly prospective lithium tenements in Brazil.
"A strong believer"
“The quarter has given the company the opportunity to further progress its projects and focus on the already identified targets of interest,” said Lightning Minerals managing director Alex Biggs.
“Our second priority target at Dundas on E63/2000 has now had a first-pass aircore drilling campaign completed. This will provide the opportunity for potentially identifying the source of the high-grade lithium anomalism that initially sparked our interest.
“With early-stage greenfield exploration targets, it is important that we incrementally move each asset along as quickly, effectively and cost-effectively as possible.
"We will be looking at stage two works at our Dalmas and Hiver projects in Canada plus further identification of discrete drill targets at our Dundas projects – particularly Dundas North.
“Despite the protracted downturn in the lithium markets the company is a strong believer in the thematic and believes in continuing to progress opportunities as cost-effectively as possible as well as seeking additional projects that will add value to the company.
“Subsequent to the end of the quarter the company has entered a proposed transaction to acquire Bengal Mining which holds highly prospective lithium projects in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
"This transaction is seen as transformative for the company and increases our global influence in the lithium exploration arena.
"We look forward to updating shareholders on this exciting acquisition in the coming weeks. I would like to thank all shareholders and stakeholders for their ongoing support.”
Dundas Project, WA
The company focused on drilling the lithium in soil anomaly on Dundas tenement E63/2000 during the quarter. Previous soil sampling produced results up to 218ppm lithium which have yielded a lithium in-soil anomaly of around 2.6 kilometres by 1 kilometre of greater than 100ppm lithium.
This tenement is just 8 kilometres east of Liontown Resources’ Buldania project which hosts a resource of 15 million tonnes at 1.0% lithium. Drilling was completed in February with assays pending subsequent to the end of the quarter.
Plans are under development for further infill soil sampling across multiple other targets across the company’s Dundas tenements.
Dalmas and Hiver projects, Canada
Assays were received in February for the inaugural reconnaissance works at Dalmas and Hiver.
Initial works focused on ground truthing and gaining an understanding of the underlying geology of the tenements.
The program was designed to follow up on multiple targets previously identified through multi-spectral analysis and confirmed multiple pegmatite occurrences.
These projects are in the prolific James Bay region of Quebec which hosts multiple large-scale lithium projects and exploration targets.
Mailman Hill Gold Project, WA
The company has been reviewing historical data and is planning an auger drilling campaign across the tenement to verify and further expand on historic gold assays.
Cavalier Resources’ Crawford Gold Project is directly to the northwest of the Mailman Hill tenement and hosts a JORC-compliant resource of 3.75 million tonnes at 1.0 g/t gold for 118,000 ounces (1.15 million tonnes at 1.0g/t gold indicated, 2.60 million tonnes at 1.0 g/t inferred).
The project has a maiden ore reserve of 1 million tonnes at 0.9 g/t gold for 29,000 ounces and is progressing to the permitting stage.
Caraíbas and Sidrônio, Brazil
Subsequent to quarter end, the company entered into a proposed transaction to acquire “highly prospective” lithium tenements in Brazil, that is subject to shareholder approval.
The transaction with Bengal Mining is considered transformative for the company, which now holds tenements in three of the most prospective lithium regions in the world: Western Australia, Quebec, Canada and Minas Gerais, Brazil.