EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT

Liontown to start NT drilling

BOOSTED by its “nearology” status, Liontown Resources will today start drilling its Bynoe lithium project, along strike from Core Exploration’s Finniss discovery in the Northern Territory.

Kristie Batten
Liontown to start NT drilling

On Friday, Core announced hits including 34m at 1.6% lithium oxide from 71m, including 7m at 2.02%, 4m at 2%, and 3m at 2%; and 14m at 1.42% lithium oxide from 61m from the BP33 prospect.

The news boosted Liontown’s shares by nearly 67% on Friday, as it holds the tenements to the north of BP33 and shares the northern extension, and it received an ASX price query.

A 4000-5000m drilling program will begin at Bynoe today.

Drilling earlier this year intersected lithium oxide values of greater than 1% in six of the 10 targets tested.

“It proved the concept that this is a new lithium discovery in Australia,” Liontown managing director David Richards told MNN.

He added that 60 pegmatites had been identified by the NT government, giving the company a huge amount of targets to test.

The ground was previously mined for tin and tantalum by Greenbushes but has never been tested for lithium.

The company believes it can define a maiden resource in the near-term.

“There’s room to find 20-30 million tonnes,” Liontown chairman Tim Goyder said.

Liontown has also got two other lithium projects, Kathleen Valley and Lake Percy, both in Western Australia.

The company acquired 100% of the rare metal rights over Ramelius Resources’ Kathleen Valley gold mine.

Rock chip samples have returned up to 3.9% lithium oxide and 381 parts per million tantalum oxide.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Goyder said.

There’s been no previous drill testing at the project for lithium, with previous exploration focused on gold and nickel.

“The plan is to put a couple of rigs in and hit it hard,” Richards said.

The third project is Lake Percy, around 60km east of Kidman Resources’ Earl Grey discovery.

The project is also untested but hosts pegmatites up to 550m wide and 3km as defined by previous nickel work.

“It’s early days here but the potential is large,” Richards said.

The company also holds the Jubilee Reef gold project in Tanzania, but it is exploring its options for the project.

Liontown is currently raising $A1.4 million in a rights issue priced at 1c – half its current share price.

Meanwhile, Kingston Resources, which also holds tenements adjacent to Core’s, jumped 45% on Friday and is up by another 12.5% so far today.

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