Firetail Resources Limited provided an update on exploration activities at its Yalgoo Lithium Project (Yalgoo) in Western Australia, where a second campaign of mapping and rock chip sampling has been successful in further extending the footprint of lithium-bearing pegmatites. The Company is highly encouraged by this geological evidence and is excited to soon be embarking upon its maiden drilling campaign, in what will be the first ever drilling designed to test the potential of pegmatite-hosted Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum (LCT) mineralisation at the project. The latest campaign has extended detailed field mapping to an area of approximately 2.5km by 2.0km and has been successful in identifying pegmatite and quartz bearing veins surrounding several known lithium occurrences. Assay results from rock chip samples have highlighted two new areas prospective for lithium mineralisation, with several anomalous results returned for Lithium, Caesium and Tantalum (LCT). Strong LCT mineralisation in rock chip samples corresponds with very coarse-grained pegmatites with predominantly quartz-feldspar-muscovite mineralogy as observed in mapping. A total of 231 rock chip samples of various rock types were collected, predominantly pegmatite and quartz bearing veins, with some samples also taken from granitoid material. The latest multi-element geochemical rock chip assay data have been sent to a consulting geochemist and the Company awaits interpretation of their results with respect to lithium prospectivity. The mapped amphibolites, banded iron formation and granitoid dykes indicate metamorphism of up to middle amphibolite facies. The main penetrative fabric is related to a broadly NNW-SSE oriented relatively high strain corridor focused along a greenstone granitoid contact that transects regional folds, cross cuts regional lithostratigraphic trends and likely extends along strike for many kilometres across the Yalgoo Singleton greenstone belt. The broadly N-S trending pegmatite veins and dykes approximate the trend of the much weaker N-S trending spaced fabric, and also the axial plane of regional folds. Pegmatite contacts are observed to cross cut the penetrative main fabric, supporting the relatively late timing of pegmatite emplacement, along with the presence of foliated greenstone rafts within some pegmatite dykes.
The duplex like geometry of pegmatite vein splays that link more strike extensive pegmatite dykes implies that sinistral wrenching along the regional NNW-SSE trend may have influenced pegmatite emplacement. Larger pegmatitic bodies appear less influenced by the underlying structural trends and fabrics, with many of these bodies cutting both structural fabrics at a high angle. These larger pegmatitic bodies are interpreted as blow outs related to structural intersections.