Alchemy Resources (ASX:ALY) delineates belt-scale lithium potential at Karonie, shares jump

Highlights

• Alchemy is riding high with the first pass regional soil sampling results highlighting multiple lithium targets over its wholly owned Karonie Project.
• The soil sampling program led to the identification of two new lithium prospects in the project tenement area.
• The company is awaiting assay results for infill soil sampling from the Cherry, Hickory and Pecan prospects.

Alchemy Resources Limited (ASX:ALY) has marked another significant development in its lithium exploration endeavours across the flagship Karonie Gold & Lithium Project.

The results from its first pass regional soil sampling operation across the project have delivered two new prospects, Red Oak and Alder, located up to 40-60km along strike from the existing Cherry and Hickory prospects.

Wholly owned by Alchemy, the Karonie Project sits within the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Thanks to the latest company update, shares of ALY soared 11.9% during the early hours of the trade to AU$0.023 apiece at around 11:30 AM (AEST) on 13 September 2022.

Alchemy launched a project-wide regional soil sampling exploration operation over the Karonie Project in mid-2022. The company collected 1,471 samples from the prospective areas of the project in a 400mX400m offset grid pattern along the ‘Goldilocks Trend’ over a strike length of 60km.

The soil geochemistry tests on the samples confirmed the presence of lithium and pathfinder anomalism. The results demonstrated a broad, coherent and coincident presence of beryllium, rubidium and tin anomalism along with associated lower levels of lithium and tantalum over the two large new prospects on the project.

Alchemy plans to carry out ground truthing to determine the source of the geochemical result values and include these in the future exploration planning.

Location of Red Oak and Alder prospects on the project (Image source: ALY update, 13 September 2022)

Two new lithium prospects at Karonie

The Red Oak prospect is located nearly 40km south of the current high-priority zones at the Cherry/Hickory prospect. The soil sampling program was aimed at evaluating the prospective Goldilocks zone adjacent to a major regional granite and a smaller granite intrusive.

The results from the Red Oak soil sampling revealed a 12kmX5km LCT pathfinder soil anomaly defined by 400m × 400m offset soil sampling. The presence of beryllium, tin, rubidium, and lower levels of tantalum and lithium have been corroborated by soil geochemical analysis.

The relation between the pathfinders and the lower-level lithium findings is not yet fully understood. The mapping notes of the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA), however, highlight the abundance of salt lakes close to Red Oak.

Regional soil geochemical assays for lithium for Red Oak & Alder (Image source: ALY update, 13 September 2022)

The Alder prospect is situated roughly 60km south of the existing Cherry/Hickory prospects and 18km south of Red Oak. The soil sampling in this area was designed to evaluate the potential Goldilocks zone next to local granites.

The results from soil geochemistry have revealed an anomaly with low levels of lithium and higher levels of beryllium, tin, and rubidium spanning a 15km by 5km strike length. Lithium readings (>30ppm Li) show low level values but relatively broad zones of anomalism.

According to GSWA mapping, the area holds residual material that contains siliceous duricrust and calcrete, which could have an impact on the results. Alchemy feels ground truthing will be required to identify the origin of the anomalies.

Image source: image source: © 2022 Kalkine Media® Data source: ALY update, 13 September 2022

What’s next?

Alchemy is highly encouraged by the latest set of results. The company is incorporating the existing geochemical data, and if available, historic drilling results, into a regional target database and will be added to the upcoming exploration programs.