Mandrake Resources Limited (ASX: MAN) has posted an exploration target at its Utah project in the United States which confirms it as a large-scale play for lithium brine.
The company made separate estimates for nine geologic target units at the project, including the McCracken Formation, Leadville Formation and seven Paradox clastic zones, including the Cane Creek Shale (clastic zone 21), and clastic zones 15, 12, 10, 9, 8 and 5.
The total target has been set between 1.7 and 5.6 million tonnes of contained LCE (lithium carbonate equivalent).
Managing director James Allchurch said the recent work would enable Mandrake to move ahead towards securing a mineral resource estimate for Utah, which is located in the Paradox Basin, an area hosting hypersaline brine known to contain high concentrations of lithium, boron, potassium salts (potash) and other elements.
“An exploration target of between 1.7 and 5.6MT of LCE, located in the US, demonstrates the potential world-class scale and quality of the Utah Lithium Project,” he said.
“Mandrake’s extensive, modern 3D seismic dataset covers the project area and together with the recently completed lithium brine sampling activities, is paving the way for the potential determination of JORC (2012) Mineral Resources estimates.
“Additionally, bulk brine samples were recently sent to two DLE providers, the results of which are expected shortly. This is a great result for the company, and we intend to advance towards maiden JORC 2012 Resource estimates in the coming months.”
Having locked in the exploration target, Mandrake intends to move on to estimation of a Mineral Resource, with future work including a comprehensive review of existing core data and potentially additional core plug analysis to determine suitability for the generation of effective porosity as well as potential additional lithium brine sampling.
Mandrake Resources is trading at 4c.