Allkem Limited has issued an update on the drilling activities at the Mt Cattlin mine in Western Australia (WA) and updated the site’s Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
According to the company, completing a major infill drilling program and reviewing the MRE have converted inferred resources to indicated category, increasing the total tonnes of contained metal to 4 per cent.
Major factors that affected the MRE include the depletion from mining and stockpile reclamation, the change in resource classification to a majority of indicated resources in a nominal 40 m by 40 m intercept spacing in the completed drill out, and the change in the methods of geological domaining to exclude pegmatites that result in poor or low metallurgical recoveries.
It added that the updated MRE reflects a higher lithium grade, with 92 per cent of total resource tonnage now included in the indicated category, which supports an upcoming reserve update and life of mine extension review.
The company completed further HQ diameter diamond drilling to support geometallurgical and geotechnical test work to inform the Mt Cattlin mine life extension study, which aims to support the approvals and design of both potential opencut and underground operations.
Allkem is currently conducting underground mining studies, including additional metallurgical test work, to further update its ore reserves and determine the trade-off between open pit and underground mining operations.
Further step-out drilling is planned for late 2023 to test the down dip extension of the pegmatite orebodies beyond the area included in the company’s latest MRE.
The company ensures that all figures included in the MRE are subject to internal controls, peer reviews, and validation both at the project and corporate levels.
It added that the ore reserve estimates are reported in accordance with the 2012 edition of the Joint Ore Resource Committee (JORC) Code.
