Lithium Energy has all the assays to scratch your high grade graphite itch in exceptional Burke drilling

Lithium Energy shares are on a tear today after the battery metals explorer revealed new drilling results that confirm its Burke deposit as one of the highest grade natural graphite projects worldwide.

Results from a recent drilling program at Burke comprising 29 RC holes for 2589m and seven diamond holes for 715m of core have started to flow through, with stunning hits in the first seven RC assays returned lighting up the market.

They include wide intervals in each of the holes – each hole – of over 20% total graphitic content.

For reference Burke’s current inferred resource already sits at 6.3Mt at 16% TGC, three times the grade of many deposits in other parts of the world.

The strikes include:

• BGRC021: 48m at 21.9% TGC from 45m
• BGRC017: 43m at 21.6% TGC from 69m
• BGRC016: 30m at 23.3% TGC from 84m
• BGRC020: 33m at 21.9% TGC from 72m
• BGRC018: 22m at 20.6% TGC from 18m
• BGRC019: 21m at 20.3% TGC from 93m
• BGRC015: 18m at 20.0% TGC from 97m; and,
• BGRC017: 10m at 27.0% TGC from 10m.

Assay results from the rest of the RC and diamond holes remain pending, with a maiden RC and diamond program to begin after the Queensland wet season at the nearby Corella tenement, where Lithium Energy (ASX:LEL) is aiming to outline a maiden JORC inferred mineral resource.

Exceptionally high grades 

The exploration success at Burke highlights another string to the bow at Lithium Energy, which is also working towards a maiden resource in a drilling program at its Solaroz brine lithium project in Argentina.

Burke’s appeal lies in its exceptionally high grades, highlighted again in today’s strong assay results.

While graphite can be used for many different things, the focus is on the booming battery market and electric vehicles, where its use in the anode chemistry of all lithium ion batteries makes graphite the largest metal by content in the key energy transition technology.

Previous CSIRO testwork has confirmed Burke’s suitability for use in Li-ion batteries and LEL is planning to start engineering studies shortly to assess the viability of establishing a purified spherical graphite anode manufacturing facility in Australia with the Burke feedstock.

This stuff is pure

Flotation tests have confirmed a concentrate of purity in excess of 95% and up to 99% TGC can be produced using a standard flotation process with purification, with CSIRO testwork achieving a purity of 99.94% TGC, closely comparing to the 99.95% TGC standard requirement for use in lithium ion battery anodes.

Located 125km north of the historic Queensland hub of Cloncurry and immediately next to Novonix’s Mt Dromedary deposit, it is well located to leverage of Queensland Government plans to develop new green energy hubs in the north of the traditional coal-mining State, notably the Lansdown Eco-Industrial precinct near Townsville.

Burke contains an inferred mineral resource of 6.3Mt at 16% TGC with a TGC cut-off grade of 5% for 1Mt of contained graphite, with a higher grade portion of 2.3Mt at 20.6% TGC (cut-off 18%) for 464,000t of contained graphite.

The recent drilling program was aiming to improve the confidence level in the resource from inferred to indicated.

Meanwhile at Corella, 40km west of Cloncurry and near the Flinders Highway that connects Mt Isa to Townsville, LEL plans to drill 2000m of RC and ~200m of diamond for resource development and met test work.

It is expected to begin in March or April this year.

This article was developed in collaboration with Lithium Energy (ASX:LEL), a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

The post Lithium Energy has all the assays to scratch your high grade graphite itch in exceptional Burke drilling appeared first on Stockhead.

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