The resource has jumped by 158% to 65.56 million tonnes at 1.38% lithium oxide.

The increase is attributed to an extra 40Mt of material being identified to the north of the Cassiterite pit.

There is an additional 20.1Mt at 1.02% lithium oxide in tailings.

Wodgina was originally operated by Global Advanced Metals between 1989 and 2012, but MinRes acquired it in the middle of last year.

Last month, MinRes CEO Chris Ellison said the project would play a big part in the company’s business.

The site includes an 11 megawatt power station, a 400-person camp and an existing “big, robust” crushing plant.

Ellison said the company was evaluating a 400,000 tonne per annum spodumene operation, and is in talks for a direct shipping ore operation.

“So, the sites are able to actually start processing – or mining and processing ore straight out of the ground and we’re in discussions with a range of potential purchasers in China,” he said.

“And we’re anticipating starting up direct export of what we call DSO or direct shipping ore, with a content of 1.5% lithium and that we expect to start that at the rate of 100,000 to 200,000t a month in April moving forward.”

Ellison said the company was close to signing a Chinese contract.

“And we’re going to go down the path and give it a 12-month trial. But the returns on that, a lot, lot, lot better than iron ore,” he said.

“Our intention out there is we’re going to dig a hole and we’re going to crush some material and we’re going to ship that to China and generate the cashflow on the bottom line.”

MinRes is already involved with lithium via its 43.1% stake in the operating Mt Marion mine in the Goldfields.

Shares in MinRes jumped by 3.3% yesterday to $A11.41. The stock has fallen from $13.54 in mid-February.