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Alchemy Resources ticks off multiple lithium and gold milestones at Karonie

Last updated: 09:40 05 Jul 2022 AEST, First published: 09:38 05 Jul 2022 AEST

Alchemy Resources Ltd - Alchemy Resources ticks off multiple lithium and gold milestones at Karonie

Alchemy Resources Ltd (ASX:ALY) has completed multiple exploration programs and made good progress at its 100%-owned Karonie gold and lithium project, east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The company has ticked off several boxes as it progresses work at Karonie including:

  • completion of project-wide regional soil geochemical sampling along the lithium prospective 'Goldilocks trend';
  • completion of detailed mapping and sampling on high-priority lithium targets;
  • completion of 100 x 40-metre infill soil sampling on Cherry, Hickory and Pecan; and
  • gold exploration drilling at Gilmore, Karonie East and KZ5 completed.

Alchemy is now assessing priority target areas for potential drill programs and more infill soil sampling, while it waits for assays for 793 infill soils, 1471 regional soils, 68 rock chip and 278 RC drill samples.

Chief executive officer James Wilson said of the company’s progress, “We are making good progress on our accelerated lithium-gold focused exploration programs.

"The gold drilling, lithium regional soils and lithium infill soils are now complete, and we have over 2,600 samples in the lab with results pending for all batches.

"The detailed mapping has identified more pegmatite dykes and chemical zonation within the increased 7.3 x 1.5-kilometre target area at Cherry-Hickory-Pecan which remains open under cover.

"Our exploration activities have the potential for considerable opportunities for growth in the near term.”

Fruitful results

Alchemy has finished its detailed mapping and rock-chip sampling at the Cherry-Hickory-Mesquite and Pecan prospects at Karonie.

The program targeted several objectives including:

  1. Mapping additional pegmatite bodies.
  2. Identifying zonation within the pegmatites to identify the most prospective zones.
  3. Obtaining additional surface rock-chip samples.
  4. Infilling the existing soil geochemistry on a 100 x 40-metre pattern.

The mapping identified numerous additional pegmatites with the overall mapped dimensions of the zone increasing to 7.3 kilometres x 1.5 kilometres.

Further ground-truthing of the lithium anomalies has revealed additional outcropping pegmatites at Cherry and Hickory.

Numerous additional outcrops have been mapped with a combined strike extent of >1.4 kilometres.

A broad zonation has been recognised, trending from outer zones of high rubidium anomalism in proximity to the Cherry Prospect, to tantalum-rich (and lower rubidium) zones at Hickory.

In particular, the strongest zones of tantalum mineralisation (122ppm tantalum) occur at the northern end of mapped pegmatites at Hickory where these trend under cover.

Cherry-Hickory Prospect with infill soil sampling and mapped pegmatites.

Further to this, infill soil sampling and rock chip sampling programs were finished in late June 2022 over the Cherry-Hickory and Pecan prospects, with 793 soil samples and 68 rock chip samples submitted for multi-element analysis. Results are pending.

Field photographs of pegmatite outcrops at Cherry and Hickory.

Soil sampling at Karonie

Alchemy has previously completed a desktop study and generated additional lithium targets in the broader Karonie regional area.

The Karonie tenure covers more than 50 kilometres of strike extent along the contact zone of a regional granite.

These areas sit within a prospective 'Goldilocks Zone', a defined corridor in which lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites exist. This zone lies outboard of the granitic terrain and within the greenstone belts and is largely untested for battery minerals and in many cases for gold.

Alchemy has designed a project-wide 400 x 400-metre spaced soil sampling program to explore for indications of potential LCT pegmatite mineralisation. The sampling involved the collection of 1,471 samples and was completed in late June 2022. Samples have been submitted to the laboratory and results are pending.

Gold exploration

Alchemy finished its RC drilling in mid-June 2022 on the Karonie East infill and KZ5 drill program with 18 RC holes drilled for 2,412 metres.

Holes in the Karonie East area are designed to test a magnetic feature which runs along the northern zone over a 2-kilometre strike length, targeting a northeast-trending structural dislocation which Alchemy believes is a key control on mineralisation in the region.

Assays from the recent aircore drill program returned several zones of anomalous gold (>0.1 g/t) over a strike length of about 950 metres, with a best intercept of 2 metres at 2.7 g/t (48 metres) in KEAC009, including 1-metre at 3.99 g/t from 48 metres logged in saprolite.

RC drilling was designed to test the mineralisation in bedrock below these intercepts and along strike from this zone. Samples from this drilling have been submitted for analysis with results pending.

Over at K25, a single deep RC hole (KZRC110) was completed to test a historically defined electro-magnetic (EM) plate to the north of the existing defined resources.

In mid-2021 Alchemy completed a drill campaign which was used to complete a maiden JORC compliant resource.

As a result of the infill drilling and resource modelling, a re-interpretation of the mineralisation envelope showed that mineralisation was offset to the northwest.

This offset zone aligns with an EM plate which was generated via a Moving Loop and Fixed Loop EM survey conducted in 19913 and could represent a northern extension to the KZ5 mineralisation.

Drilling in KZRC110 finished at 198 metres depth and intersected zones of massive sulphides between 155-161 metres which was in line with the modelled depth of the EM plate. Samples have been submitted to the laboratory with assay results pending.

What’s next

Alchemy will continue to busy itself at Karonie with plenty of news flow to come from the following:

  • Drill targeting to commence once all assays have been received for infill soils and rock chips.
  • Assess regional assay results for follow-up mapping and additional sampling.
  • Continue to progress Heritage Access Agreements to enable future drill programs.
  • Pending gold assay results will inform additional follow-up programs.
  • Start early clearing for Western Brown RC drill program.

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