An ASX-listed junior is looking to expeditiously dual-track its two lithium projects during the coming year, with the Perth-based Future Battery Minerals Ltd (FBM) targeting deposits in both Western Australia and the US state Nevada.
In WA, the prize is its wholly-owned Kangaroo Hills, located just 17 kilometres south of the historic gold town of Coolgardie, where a high grade lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite discovery has so far returned an assay of 29 metres at 1.36 per cent lithium.
Meanwhile, in southern Nevada, the aptly-named Nevada Lithium Project (NLP), in which the junior has an 80 per cent interest, is a large-scale sedimentary deposit, where the rig has come across an intercept of 226m at 855 parts per million.
By the end of the March quarter the junior hopes to have achieved two key goals.
First, it wants to launch its Phase Four northern targets drilling campaign for its Kangaroo Hills holdings with the aim of completing a maiden resource by the end of the year. This program is set to test a series of high potential resistivity anomaly targets that were sharpened with some optimised resistivity survey work.
Second, it is aiming to declare a maiden mineral resource estimate for the NLP.
During Vertical Events’ recent RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle, FBM’s technical director Robin Cox said the company would initially be looking at what it believed to be its most “prospective area” to maximise the value “geologically speaking” for the year ahead.
In particular, Big Red – a thick, high grade, shallow dipping target which remains open to the north and at depth ‒ will likely be first cab off the rank, with the junior having already progressively expanded its delivery system, with thick intervals (over 20m) at a high grade (plus 1.2 per cent lithium oxide) looking highly prospective.
Cox also indicated the nearby Rocky target, which was identified last year by FBM’s Phase 3 exploration program, hosts confirmed pegmatites, with the rig returning a proximal lithium oxide result of 5m at 1.12 per cent from 104m.
“What Rocky does it ties together another, I guess, system – it proves there is a stacked system occurring, particularly as we go north,” he told his RIU audience.
“And it really does add a bit of size to what the scale of the project can be due to its proximity to Big Red.”
Cox also said FBM had achieved some outstanding initial metallurgical results from the target area.
They confirmed that spodumene was the predominant lithium mineral (being around 90 per cent of the lithium oxide), demonstrating Big Red was readily amenable to conventional dense media separation and froth flotation separation techniques, while a hybrid flowsheet involving the two could maximise the process outcomes.
Over in Nevada, the junior holds five prospect areas covering over 90 square km and is located south-east of Tesla’s gigafactory.
Significant lithium intercepts from FMB’s Phase 3 drilling program conducted last year include 226m at 855 ppm from 140m (including 66m at 1,001 ppm from 216m); 148m at 175 ppm from 152m (with 60m at 918 ppm from 191m); 180m at 18 ppm from 40m (including 51m at 915 ppm from 53m) and; 19.5m at 501 ppm from 370m.
While Cox touched upon the point, in its RIU power presentation FMB pointed out that the current US Joe Biden-led White House had, a few years back, committed US$7.58 billion to build electric vehicle charges, while another US$78 would be funnelled into critical minerals supply chains.
Additionally, US$40 billion would be available through the US Department of Energy Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee.