Minerals 260 Limited has announced that it started its maiden exploration fieldwork program at the Aston Project.
The Aston Project, which was acquired by the company earlier in the year, consists of 13 largely contiguous exploration licences covering a total area of over 1,700 km2.
According to the company, the planned field programme, which is designed to define drill targets, will take approximately six months to complete and consists of geological reconnaissance, a detailed airborne magnetic and radiometric survey, and a grid-based geochemical program consisting of 6,000 samples.
Minerals 260 added that the recent exploration successes by other companies working near the Aston Project highlighted the potential for significant lithium and rare earth mineralisation.
The geological reconnaissance program will initially prioritise the Jameson-Malinda lithium trend, which was defined by Delta Lithium Limited.
The Aston Project is largely underlain by the Durlacher Supersuite, which is the primary host unit to the Yangibana and Yin discoveries, and it is envisaged that the airborne geophysical survey in progress over the ground acquired from eMetals will define additional thorium anomalies for follow-up.
Government mapping activities in the area also recorded numerous pegmatites and tantalum occurrences within the region, including on the Aston project.
The recorded results are expected to improve the lithium prospectivity of the region, given that most of the significant pegmatite-hosted lithium developments in Australia were previously exploited for tantalum.
Minerals 260 Managing Director David Richards said the company looks forward to updating the market with additional announcements as soon as possible.
“Given that we have worked hard to acquire a large land position in the highly prospective Gascoyne province, we are excited to get on the ground and start our targetted exploration program,” he added.
