iTech (ASX:ITM) samples lithium province potential in Top End’s Reynolds Range

iTech Minerals has sampled an exciting batch of lithium a day after the reveal of high-grade copper and silver in the rock chips of its Reynolds Range project northwest of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Eight significant rock chip samples from the project’s GMF pegmatite showed high-grade lithium ranging from 6.5 per cent up to 8.24% in what iTech believes could be a previously unidentified lithium province.

The pegmatite was sampled over an interpreted thickness of around 90 metres and holds a mapped length of 250m before disappearing under thin cover.

It stands among more than 60 kilometres of outcropping pegmatites interpreted by satellite imagery to date across the 70 square kilometre tenement package.

The South Australia-based explorer will now return to the field this week to investigate the extent of its lithium-bearing pegmatites and the fresh copper-gold prospects which returned a noticeable share price bump on Tuesday.

iTech Minerals Managing Director Mike Schwarz said that from what the company can determine, this was the region’s first discovery of lithium-bearing pegmatite.

“And given the abundant outcropping pegmatites across the greater than seventy square kilometre tenement package may be a previously unrecognised lithium province,” he said.

“The team is heading back out in the field this week to sample a wider selection of pegmatites around this exciting new discovery.”

A review of historical exploration spurred a recent field trip for a pair of iTech directors to field-check prospects found by past explorers and confirm the scale and style of regional mineralising systems.

The review noted a historical occurrence of tin at the old Mt Stafford Tin Mine and, given a history of associated lithium discoveries, iTech decided to make a brief visit to the host pegmatite to assess it for lithium.

The trip left the directors impressed at the widespread outcropping pegmatites mapped up to 1.4km long and 100m wide, and the return of high-grade lithium in samples should do little to dissuade excitement.

While X-Ray diffraction analysis is pending, preliminary work has indicated high-content spodumene as the lithium-bearing mineral.

And though lithium markets remain sullen, it is an intriguing return for iTech as it continues investigating the project’s multi-commodity potential.