Enterprise Metals Ltd (ENT) ('Enterprise' or the 'Company') is pleased to advise that it has completed a review of the geological setting of prominent lithium deposits in the Yilgarn Block of Western Australia.

This review has determined that the Bullfinch North Project contains similar geological settings to the major pegmatite-hosted lithium deposits in the Southern Cross, Norseman-Wiluna, Ravensthorpe, and Balingup greenstone belts.

As reported previously (ENT-ASX: 23 December 2020) the Bullfinch North area comprises slightly to strongly metamorphosed rocks that were initially mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks, sedimentary rocks, and local felsic volcanic rocks. Foliated Archean granitic rocks flank the NNWtrending greenstone belt. No previous exploration for lithium-bearing pegmatites has been undertaken. Targeted and systematic soil sampling for lithium will commence in late January in those areas amenable to soil sampling that are identified by ENT as not covered with younger transported cover rocks.

Targeted areas for sampling include the Bingin-Maries Find area on the peninsula jutting into Lake Deborah West. In early 2021 Enterprise undertook drill testing of amphibolite hosted historical gold workings. The Bingin-Maries Find gold workings are closely associated with a network of pegmatite intrusive bodies, some of which appear dyke-like whereas others have complex shapes, which have not been explored or analysed for lithium by previous explorers. Enterprise considers that the geological setting of the Bingin-Maries Find area has some similarities with the Earl Grey lithium deposit some 100km south of Southern Cross. The Earl Grey deposit is described as being a pegmatite with an albite-spodumene-quartz-microcline dominated composition, with accessory muscovite, biotite, petalite and tourmaline. (Kidman, 2018) This albite spodumene pegmatite hosts rare metal lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) mineralization.

Background

Enterprise holds 'Option to Purchase' agreements over a contiguous block of Bullfinch North tenements held by Nickgraph Pty Ltd and Peter Gianni. The tenement package extends for approximately 50 km along strike from just north of Trough Well through to just south of Bullfinch (Fig. 1). and covers approximately 240 km2 of granted tenements over Archaean greenstone lithologies prospective for orogenic gold deposits, nickelcopper sulfide deposits, iron ore, and pegmatite hosted lithium.

In a recent 2022 research paper authored by Emeritus Professor David Groves and others (Groves et al., 2022-online), it was pointed out that the higher pressures of the upper-greenschist to amphibolite facies environments would favour both formation of spodumene and giant crystals. 'The anomalous abundance of the economic spodumene-bearing pegmatites in Archean greenstone belts is probably related to a combination of higher heat flow due to mantle plume activity and preservation of environments at the required crustal level due to the long-term stability of Archean cratons with anomalously thick lithosphere' (Groves et al., 2005, and references therein). Groves et al. (2022) also point out the favourability of synkinematic lithium pegmatites for economic deposits. The complex shape of pegmatites on the western shoreline of Lake Deborah West suggests that these may be synmetamorphic and syndeformational pegmatite bodies.

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