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Maiden drilling at Voltaic's Andrada prospect has delivered visual pegmatites at estimated widths of 13-58m, with several the deeper holes below 50m ending in mineralisation.
True widths are expected to be about half of reported widths.
The company wrapped up drilling ahead of schedule, punching 15 holes for 894m into six targets, intersecting pegmatites in all holes, with plenty of evidence of continuous mineralisation in a favourable structural setting close to the granitic contacts in the "Goldilocks zone".
Potential
Assays to hopefully confirm the lithium are expected within six weeks, but the potential might be inferred by results released yesterday by Delta which paid A$25 million for a much larger position at the 575sq.km Yinnetharra project that wraps around the 212sq.km Ti Tree prospects along 40km of the prospective 80km-long Volta Corridor.
One of Delta's better intercepts to date was 56m at 1.12% from 94m, and it has committed to a 90,000m drilling campaign.
Assays from the three-rig program testing the Malinda project along trend released yesterday included 20m at 1.29% from 28m and 15m at 1.28% from 99m, with the work defining two further spodumene mineralised pegmatites, M20, and one that is unnamed but has no surface expression.
Delta has mapped more than 50 pegmatites at Malinda, defining a strike at the M1 pegmatite of 950m, and mineralisation from surface to depths of 350m.
Delta executive chair David Flanagan has described Malinda as "consistent thick and predictable".
He said the presence of blind targets with no outcrop or surface anomalies suggests there may be many more targets at Yinnetharra.
Acceleration
Little wonder, Voltaic is planning a fast-tracked second phase campaign to test down-dip and extensional potential of the significant pegmatites intercepted.
Voltaic has barely explored 10% of its tenure that includes more than 300 mapped outcrops, with its initial targets selected less for geology and more for favourable access options.
Voltaic CEO Michael Walshe said despite the first-pass assays, the company had generated significant data that would allow it vector towards a discovery.
Voltaic recapitalised itself as a battery metals explorer last October, resuming trading at A2.4c, 40% higher than the level of the shares issued under its re-compliance listing.
The stock reached 8.1c earlier today and was still up 189% this afternoon at 7.8c, capitalising it at $34 million.
Delta shares were also up strongly, at its highest level of 2023 at 52.5c today, valuing it at $232 million.
