Alchemy Resources winds up its lithium RC drill run at WA Karonie play; assays due December

Alchemy Resources (ASX:ALY) has completed first-pass RC drilling for 4,092m of core equivalent at its Karonie project located in Western Australia, a dual gold-lithium play along strike from Silver Lake Resources’ (ASX:SLR) gold project. 

Silver’s play sees the company boasting a 600,000oz gold resource with a cut-off at 2 grams of gold per tonne of ore (2g/t.)

The Karonie project, for Alchemy, consists of 38km of strike length atop the Claypan Shear Zone, which also forms part of the acreage held by Breaker Resources (ASX:BRB), which boasts its own 1.3Moz gold resource at a cut-off of 1.5g/t of gold. 

However, despite being located within a lucrative gold mining province (Karonie is located 90km east of Kalgoorlie,) Alchemy’s latest RC run was sniffing out the hottest commodity of the year, lithium, and not gold. 

It may be onto a good thing, given that the company’s latest drilling campaign intersected thick pegmatite zones. There is no mention of whether pegmatites are thought to be spodumene or lepidolite. 

What has Alchemy reported today? 

Assay results are not yet available for the pegmatite samples sent off to a laboratory in Kalgoorlie, but the company’s exploration team expects to receive its first in-depth assays by the middle of next month. 

Drilling samples were collected from the Hickory prospect, part of the larger Karonie envelope. Pegmatites hit by Alchemy’s drilling team ranged in thickness from 1m, to up to 27m. The deepest drillhole reported today extended to 220m. 

Multiple pegmatite systems are reported, pegmatite is the rock type which typically hosts lithium mineralisation at some grade or another. 

For hard rock lithium projects, concentrations of lithium in samples above 1% are typically considered high-grade, with concentrations above 4% typically attracting strong shareholder interest.

Stacked pegmatites outstanding: Management 

“The discovery of extensive thick stacked pegmatites at Hickory is an outstanding result. This confirms our model that mapped pegmatites are continuous at depth,” Alchemy CEO James Wilson said. 

“Pegmatites [are interpreted to] continue to the north and west under the shallow alluvial cover which extends for roughly 3km to the north, masking surface geochemical expression.” 

“We will now start planning follow-up programs so we can hit the ground running immediately once assays are received.” 

More drilling in 2023, all cards in order

The company is to move ahead with mapping at Karonie, sussing out promising leads beyond the confines of the Hickory prospect. 

Once assay data is returned, mapping is updated, and other datasets are compiled; the company’s exploration team will then begin shoring up a plan to move ahead with further drilling at the project.

A look at Alchemy's three month charts. The share price has fallen just over -30% today, but, being a microcap, volatile price movements look bigger than they otherwise would. Shares currently sit at 3c