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Piedmont Lithium (ASX:PLL) sends three more rigs to expand drilling at lithium project

Materials
ASX:PLL      MCAP $75.67M
17 November 2020 14:15 (AEST)
Piedmont Lithium (ASX:PLL) - President & CEO, Keith D Phillips

Source: Metals Investor Forum

Piedmont Lithium (PLL) has sent three more drill rigs to its Piedmont Lithium Project in North Carolina to expand the current drilling operation.

The company will use the rigs to undertake an additional 25,000 metres of drilling with a total of five separate rigs now at the U.S. site.

All of the drilling at the Piedmont Project is designed to help upgrade its current mineral resource from inferred to measured and indicated in specific areas.

PLL believes this resource upgrade will occur sometime in the second quarter of 2021 and will add to the project’s ore reserves and definitive feasibility study (DFS).

Around 5000 metres of drilling has already been completed at Piedmont, exploring the numerous spodumene pegmatites discovered at the site.

Assays from those discoveries are now pending, while the entire expanded drilling operation is expected to wrap up in the Spring of 2021.

However, PLL noted that COVID-19 may have an impact on the company’s ability to complete the drilling program as it is located in the United States.

Commenting on the operation, Piedmont President and CEO Keith Phillips said the company was excited to push ahead with additional drilling.

“Our dual objectives are to upgrade the current inferred resources within the core property to support our upcoming DFS, while also growing the overall scale of our mineral resource tonnage,” he said.

“The Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt is one of the world’s most prolific lithium belts and we are hopeful that we will ultimately delineate North America’s largest spodumene resource, ideally located in North Carolina to power North America’s clean energy storage and electric vehicle (EV) revolution,” Keith added.

Shares in the company are currently trading for 40.5 cents each, up 9.46 per cent at 12:35 pm AEDT.

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