Bulletin Resources finds new lithium spodumene outcrop

The exploration team at Bulletin Resources (ASX:BNR) revealed its fresh discovery of a high-grade lithium pegmatite outcrop at the company’s WA-based Ravensthorpe project on Wednesday. 

The discovery effectively extends a westward trend of spodumene-bearing outcrop at the project to 3km in length. 

The company's share price was up 14% in the first hour of trade.

The company recently would up mapping and rock chip sampling of the newly discovered outcrop, reporting high-grades. 

The Ravensthorpe project is located 12km southwest of Allkem Limited’s (ASX:AKE) Mt. Cattlin lithium mine.

Making sense of grades

Investor advisory firm Next Investors classifies high-grade lithium as that in concentrations over 1%. 

Rock-chip results often show higher degrees of mineralisation than what is reported in assays for underground drilling. 

Bulletin today reports the following grades from rock-chip assays on the newly discovered pegmatites: 

• One sample @ 4.81% lithium oxide 

• One sample @ 4.67% lithium oxide 

• One sample @ 4.31% lithium oxide, and

• One sample @ 3.54% lithium oxide

Fieldwork ongoing 

The company described the overall prospectivity of the Western Pegmatite Trend as having increased on the back of the latest outcrop discovery and rock-chip results.

Bulletin Resources also reported having $12m in cash on Wednesday. 

The company’s exploration team continues to map other target areas as part of its early 2023 operations at Ravensthorpe. 

Rock-chip sampling and geochemical (read: soil) sampling will continue through the current campaign while the company awaits its receipt of drilling permits for the project. 

Bulletin has had to beef up its environmental strategy, given that the drill rig access tracks it will need to clear impact certain ecologies relied upon by endangered cockatoos. Bulletin expects minimal impact.

Proven ability 

In August last year, Bulletin reported its success in metallurgical testwork with product from the Ravensthorpe play. 

In short, the company has proven at small scale it can potentially be a producer of lithium in the future. 

Whether or not it can build a mine large enough to make the economics work remains the million dollar question, as of yet unanswered. 

Advisory firm BHM, who assisted in the August 2022 test-work, reported the following last year: 

• Bulletin samples reflect high grade lithium of a coarse grain 

• Iron content was below the 1.5% cut-off required by buyers (but fines will require further processing as iron content is elevated)

• Tested composites yielded grades in excess of industry requirements 

• Standard separation downstream refining was able to produce high grade concentrate 

• Post-processing improvements to grade were above fourfold multiplications 

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