IGO, Venus partnership scores new Greenbushes lithium sniffs

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IGO, Venus partnership scores new Greenbushes lithium sniffs

Venus Metals’ Bridgetown-Greenbushes ****** venture (JV) with mining giant IGO has uncovered spodumene grains from stream and soils assays at its southern terrane tenements in Western Australia.

The farm-in JV at Greenbushes is operated by IGO, which also operates the world-class, ultra-high-grade Greenbushes hard-rock lithium mine just next door. The stream sediment and soil sampling assays identified two key areas of interest – named Cowslip and Flying Duck – in the JV’s hunt for lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites.

Trace spodumene crystals were identified in two samples from the areas, with one from Cowslip – which ***** just 5km east of the Greenbushes operation – also containing traces of rare-metal pegmatite indicators. The discovery could see Venus become a potential player in one of Australia’s most promising lithium exploration regions.

The successful sampling campaign has enhanced the JV project’s potential as a source of lithium, particularly given its proximity to the IGO-operated Greenbushes mine – the biggest hard-rock lithium mine in the world. IGO manages the project and can progressively acquire up to a 70 per cent interest by incurring $6 million worth of exploration expenditure on the tenements.

The first phase of the sampling program saw some 1588 surface soil samples collected across the project area, with most of them collected from easily-accessible roadside reserves.

Phase-two soil sampling and further exploration are already underway to more extensively follow up the successes of the initial survey. It will include new soil surveys in underexplored areas, in addition to detailed mapping and rock-chip sampling.

IGO also plans to conduct a ground gravity survey across the same properties to guide subsurface geological interpretation that will be used alongside geochemistry results.

Venus now boasts several lithium-focussed exploration projects across WA, including its Henderson project in the proven lithium district of Mt Ida and its flagship Youanmi project in the State’s Murchison region.

In the maiden drill campaign at Venus’ Deep South prospect at Youanmi, the company intersected high-grade lithium pegmatites for a cracking hit of 24m grading 1.71 per cent lithium from surface. High-grade lithium pegmatites were intersected at both the East and North zones, with strong tantalum enrichment also recorded.

The 24m hit also included a 14m section grading an impressive 2.54 per cent lithium from surface – a grade rarely seen outside the world-renowned Greenbushes ********.

Management says its positive phase-one drilling results give it the confidence to potentially chase other regional deposits in the area that may be lurking under cover with no outcropping pegmatites.

Venus says high lithium grades at Deep South are associated with coarse-grained petalite – a rare high-purity lithium mineral similar in composition to spodumene and known to contain fewer impurities than the more-commonly found lithium mineral.

Petalite is known to occur with spodumene in other lithium deposits to the south, such as at Covalent Lithium’s giant Mt Holland project that contains an estimated mineral resource of 189 million tonnes of lithium oxide at 1.5 per cent.

Lithium prices have experienced a recent reprieve after a blood bath in the preceding months, reflecting a cautious recovery in the market following the closure of ******** lepidolite operations. A previously-forecasted supply glut and price drop for the white metal was largely due to the plight of the ******** lepidolite operations.

Lepidolite mines are hard-rock mining operations and are far more common throughout Asia. They are often lower-grade and possess much higher processing costs than the preferred *********** spodumene hard-rock operations.

As a result, this year’s lithium price slump has been the catalyst for the ******** operations to close their doors.

But with that glimmer of hope for *********** hard-rock operations and lithium prices beginning to stabilise, there are signs that interest is returning to the sector. And that could be accentuated even more if the Venus/IGO JV gets a whiff of where the next world-class Greenbushes-style lithium ******** could be hiding.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: *****@*****.tld

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