- Metals Australia (MLS) begins a diamond drilling program at its Manindi project in WA’s Murchison district
- The company will drill a single hole at three battery minerals targets including the Foundation pegmatite, and the Kultarr and Manindi West prospects
- Drilling has already started at Foundation to test extensions of the pegmatite at depth below previous high-grade intersections
- Drilling will then test extensions of high-grade zinc at the Kultarr prospect before finishing up at Manindi West to test a mafic/ultramafic target below high-grade intersections
- MLS last traded at 5 cents per share on June 28
Metals Australia (MLS) has begun a diamond drilling program at its Manindi project in Western Australia’s Murchison district.
The drilling program will include three holes, for 700 metres, to test three battery minerals targets including the Foundation pegmatite, the Kultarr zinc-copper prospect, and the Manindi West prospect.
First up, the drill rig has commenced work through the higher-grade section of the 500-metre Foundation pegmatite which is situated down-dip of the highest-grade lithium-rubidium pegmatite zone.
This zone recently returned some thick and high-grade intersections including 11 metres at 1.23 per cent lithium and 0.31 per cent rubidium from 16 metres including five metres at 1.47 per cent lithium and 0.3 per cent rubidium.
Drilling at Foundation will obtain metallurgical samples to determine the lithium-bearing mineral assemblage.
The second diamond hole will test for extensions of a “spectacular” intersection in previous hole MNRC070 which confirmed the high-grade zinc mineralisation extends beyond previous drilling, showing potential to expand the zinc resources at the Kultarr prospect.
MNRC070 returned 68 metres at 3.09 per cent zinc and 0.2 per cent copper from 89 metres including 24 metres at 6.47 per cent zinc and 0.29 per cent copper from 100 metres.
Lastly, the third hole of this diamond drilling program will test the mafic/ultramafic intrusive target at Manindi West below the intersection of vanadium-bearing titaniferous magnetite with zones of nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide mineralisation in MNRC071.
This hole returned an intercept of 82 metres at 0.3 per cent vanadium, 28 per cent iron and 11.5 per cent titanium from 48 metres including 70 metres at 0.32 per cent vanadium, 29 per cent iron and 12.2 per cent titanium.
Metals Australia believes the mineralisation has similarities to Venus Metals’ (VMS) Youanmi vanadium project which lies within the same mafic complex 20 kilometres northeast of Manindi and has potential to host higher-grade vanadium-titanium mineralisation at the base of the intrusive.
Additionally, the company is undertaking a series of regional gravity profiles over the Manindi West and Kultarr zinc trends to outline the extent of the mafic intrusive complexes and define contact zones for further testing.
MLS last traded at 5 cents per share on June 28.