Fig. 1: Aruma Resources project location map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAll five mineral exploration projects are within prospective geology, close to mining infrastructure, and are all within Western Australia.<\/p>\n
Mt Deans Lithium Project<\/h2>\n The Mt Deans Lithium Project has evolved over the last 90 years from a gold mining project in the Great Depression, to tin mining in the 1960s, and a tantalum project earlier this century. Although there are close to economic grades of the tin and tantalum present in the pegmatites at Mt Deans, it is the lithium mica lepidolite which is the focus of current work at the project.<\/p>\n
Mineral exploration and drilling at the end of 2022 were very successful in showing Aruma that we had thick and consistently well-mineralised pegmatites in the project. The style of the pegmatite intrusions makes estimating their location, and in turn, volumes and grades, relatively easy. The pegmatites at Aruma\u2019s Mt Deans project are sheeted. By this, the geologists mean that they are very planar and can be followed along strike and down dip for hundreds of metres.<\/p>\n
Of note with the mineralisation at the Mt Deans Lithium Project, the lithium is contained within the mica mineral lepidolite (Fig. 2).<\/p>\nFig. 2: Lepidolite \u2013 lithium mica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLepidolite orebodies have been the dirty cousin to spodumene of the hard rock lithium sources over the last few years, but it is very important to realise that more than 22% of the global lithium supply comes from lepidolite as it does from brines. In fact, Chinese lepidolite production has had an annualised growth of over 145% for the past seven years.<\/p>\n
The main issue with lepidolite is the perceived environmental impact of the lithium extraction process that has been used in the past, with the roasting requirements and the fluorine, which exists within the mica, having a big environmental impact. New processes are being proven to be much more environmentally friendly, with by-products also becoming value adding. Sulphate roasting is becoming more widespread. Companies such as Lithium Australia have patented processes like the SiLeach\u00ae<\/sup> process (Fig. 3), which also has the added benefits of being a low temperature reaction, and the final product being lithium phosphate. Lithium phosphate is direct feed for the production of lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) batteries \u2013 the fastest-growing sector of the lithium-ion battery industry.<\/p>\nFig. 3: Lithium Australia SiLeach\u00ae process flow sheet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMt Deans ore also contains several other elements at economic grades. Along with the lithium comes very healthy grades of rubidium (Rb), caesium (Cs), tin (Sn) and tantalum (Ta). The grades intersected in drilling are averaging 1.0% Li2<\/sub>O, 0.7% Rb2<\/sub>O, 800ppm Cs, 220ppm Sn and 230ppm Ta. What all this means is that the grades of the Sn and Ta are good enough to pay for all of the mining and processing at Mt Deans, and the lithium will make a very good profit.<\/p>\nSaltwater rare earth elements Project<\/h3>\n Located in the northern part of the state is the Saltwater REE Project. Saltwater was originally selected for its gold potential and, as the project has progressed, the abundance of other styles of mineral exploration has shown that the presence of REEs and base metals makes the large and very underexplored project an exciting proposition.<\/p>\nFig. 4: Outcropping pegmatite with drill hole location and section locations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFig. 5: Sections A-A\u2019 and B-B\u2019 showing the consistency of the sheeted pegmatites with thickness, orientations and mineralisation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA recent field mapping and sampling programme has identified numerous targets which are elevated in the targeted elements, with elevated REEs but also economic cobalt and very elevated grades of copper, lead, and zinc (Tables 1 and 2).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This programme confirmed REE enrichment across multiple structures, alongside significantly elevated pathfinder values of phosphorus (P), strontium (Sr) and thorium (Th). In addition to REEs, significant base metals were also detected. These elevations, paired with the presence of significant barium and manganese, offer initial encouragement for the potential of Saltwater to host a VMS- or MVT-style mineralisation system. The copper (Cu) and cobalt (Co) in particular show economic mineralisation to be present.<\/p>\nFig. 6: AR12298 enriched in base metals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe mineral exploration model being applied by Aruma for its REE exploration at the Saltwater Project is an unconformity model. The prospective stratigraphy sits below the Bresnahan \u2013 Wyloo unconformity, of which the Saltwater Project has approximately 80km of strike (Fig. 6). This model has been used successfully in the exploration for hard rock REE deposits within Western Australia, most notably by Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) at its Browns Range Project.<\/p>\nFig. 7: Saltwater Project map showing the Wyloo \u2013 Bresnahan unconformity and associated basin structures which are the target for future exploration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPlease note, this article will also appear in the fifteenth\u00a0edition of our\u00a0quarterly publication<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Learn how Aruma Resources is advancing mineral exploration in Western Australia through it’s impressive critical mineral project portfolio. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":36728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24502],"tags":[24562,529,24206,24308,24510],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Aruma Resources: Pioneering mineral exploration in Western Australia<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n