Bradda Head Lithium Ltd (AIM:BHL / OTCQB:BHLIF), a North America-focused lithium development group, said yesterday it has been granted drilling permission to conduct geochemical testing of the brine at its Wilson Flat Project in Nye County, Nevada. The Wilson Flat Project consists of 13.6 square kilometres of federal mining claims.
Bradda Head has built on previous positive exploration results to acquire the drilling permits at its Wilson project in Nevada. The company said the newly permitted drilling is designed to test promising features identified in the prior work undertaken in 2016 to 2017.
What has Bradda Head discovered so far?
Results of the 2016 gravity survey and 2017 MT survey conducted by Bradda Head geologists at its asset in Nevada have indicated the potential presence of a brine-enriched basin up to 5km long and up to 400m deep. The interpreted structures and architecture are considered consistent with the lithium-bearing brine deposit models identified in the adjacent Clayton Valley area.Bradda Head currently has interests in a variety of projects, the most advanced of which are in Central and Western Arizona: the Basin Project (Basin East Project, and the Basin West Project) and the Wikieup Project.
The Basin East Project has an estimated an Inferred Mineral Resource (JORC) of 42.6 Mt of lithium bearing clays at an average grade of 818 ppm of lithium for 185,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). The Basin East Project also has additional exploration potential for extensions to the current model of between 50,000 to 300,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.
Coordinated development of projects
“The surface sampling so far on the project has shown very encouraging results of as much as 192 ppm Li, and the MT survey has indicated the presence of lithium brine deposits starting at 150m and being up to 5 kilometres long, which also corresponds with our geological model for Wilson,” said Charles FitzRoy, CEO of Bradda Head. “Our exploration success at Basin, our on-going exploration at San Domingo and our now-permitted drill program at Wilson provides us with confidence that our strategy of simultaneously developing the key lithium deposit types of clays, pegmatites and brines in a coordinated manner is the right one.”
Bradda Head was granted permission by the US Bureau of Land Management to drill two holes, of 305 metres in depth each and approximately two kilometres apart, to conduct geochemical testing of the lithium brine at its Wilson Flat Project located in Nye County in Nevada. Wilson is c.130 km east of Albemarle’s Silver Peak lithium brine operation in Clayton Valley, Nevada and c.115km east of American Lithium’s TLC project in Nevada. The Wilson Flat Project consists of 13.6 square kilometres of federal mining claims.
Drilling program objectives
The objective of the drilling programme is to obtain brine samples for geochemical testing, develop a better understanding of the hydrogeology, and to conduct lithological logging of the shallow clay sediments to learn more about the deposit(s) at Wilson. Due to the prospective lithium grades at surface, the Bradda Head team plan to follow up with a surface drilling programme which is now being planned as well as the brine geochemical testing programme now permitted.
A deep basin containing a thick sequence of saturated sedimentary formations is apparently present beneath the Wilson Flat property, the company said this week. In addition, surface sediment samples taken in 2016 are enriched in lithium (up to 192ppm) whilst water bores located 1km east containing elevated levels of lithium (1.2ppm) support the hypothesis of enriched lithium waters at depth in the identified basin.
The anomalous surface results (up to 192ppm Li) and the presence of lithium mineralisation at surface adds to the potential for sedimentary lithium deposits as well as the identified brine target at depth.
For comparison of the sedimentary resource potential at Wilson, American Lithium’s sedimentary TLC project is c.115km from Wilson and covers 30.5 square kilometres, and has a Maiden resource of 7.1Mt of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE). Bradda’s Wilson claims cover an area of 13.6 square kilometres.
Alongside the brine target that the Bradda team are exploring is the potential for sedimentary lithium deposits too, similar to its neighbours in Nevada, American Lithium. The lithological logging will help Bradda Head understand the deposit better and build on its existing geological model, especially in the shallower sediments near surface.
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