QX Resources fast-tracking Pilbara lithium drill campaign on high-grade

After acquiring the WA Pilbara-based Turner River Lithium Project in October last year, QX Resources (ASX:QXR) is now fast-tracking its maiden drill campaign on the back of high-grade lithium assays. 

QX Resources today notes it has hit two high-grade samples from the Carbonate Hill target, the flagship prospect of interest at Turner River. 

• One sample returned 1.6% lithium 

• And another returned 1.1% lithium

Traces of tin and rare earth elements were also hit, including a strong response for the highly-valued rubidium. “Surface outcrop appears more subtle than typical pegmatites in the Pilbara,” QX notes. 

While Carbonate Hill is what the company has its best bets placed on; QX further adds it has discovered a second new area of interest with traits similar to that at Carbonate Hill. 

Previous owners might have missed (metaphorical) gold 

The company’s exploration team believes an erroneously mapped quartz vein is, in fact, a potential lithium-bearing pegmatite. 

Typically, lithium concentrations at 1% or higher are considered mid-high grade, if not high grade altogether. 

The Turner River project has been the site of higher-grade discoveries, too. 

The hard rock lithium project has previously yielded rock samples boasting lithium in concentrations exceeding 4% in some samples tested; the host mineralisation for those samples was lepidolite, and not spodumene. 

Lepidolite is less common than spodumene and somewhat more complicated to process, though, the mineralisation is common enough and a number of lithium companies on the ASX are lepidolite-focused. 

New MD the former Lake Resources chief 

“These latest high-grade assays provide greater confidence in the Turner River prospect and to fast-track a maiden drill program. Since joining QXR last month, this has been a primary focus,” new company MD Steve Promnitz said. 

Steve Promnitz was the MD for Lake Resources (ASX:LKE), a lithium explorer in Argentina. 

His appointment saw the QX share price go up, though, it’s worth noting Lake Resources has recently become the target of activist hedge fund actor JCapital. 

“I expect to provide an update very shortly on the drilling timeline. We now have a significant area of lithium mineralisation in sparse outcrop and we interpret extensions undercover,” Promnitz added.

A look at QXR's three month charts