Red Dirt posts first high grade lithium assay from Yinnetharra project

Red Dirt Metals (ASX:RDT) revealed on Friday its latest assay results on the back of recent lithium drilling at the WA-based Yinnetharra play, one of two lithium projects managed by the company. The other is its Mt. Ida project.

Investor information firm Next Investors classifies high-grade lithium as that in concentrations over 1% lithium oxide Li2O (“lithium”). 

Compare that to the following results Red DIrt hit from drilling lithium pegmatite targets: 

• 15m @ 1.52% lithium from 95 m depth 

• 15m @ 1.36% lithium from 118m depth, and 

• 12.4m @ 1.22% lithium from 137m depth 

Those results come from the “Malinda Prospect” on-site the larger Yinnetharra acreage.

The obvious question will be how Red Dirt’s exploration team expects to get to depths exceeding 100m, given that the earthworks opex would be considerable. 

“Cracking” result

“This is a cracking result for the Company’s first drill hole assay at Yinnetharra. This result demonstrates we have grade, we have width, we have strike, it comes to surface and it is just the first target,” company chief David Flanagan said. 

Note that the comment on “coming to surface” is a reference to the extraction of drill core, meaning it has not probed granite bodies too hard to drill. 

Results from late 2022, not 2023 

“Receiving such fabulous results in such a short period of time is a huge achievement…this result is from the first of the sixteen diamond drill holes completed in late 2022 and we are already back underway at Yinnetharra,” Flanagan added. 

The company kicked off drilling back in early January at its flagship Yinnetharra Lithium Project with no less than seven drill rigs active across two lithium projects. 

At Yinnetharra alone, the current drill program consists of 400 drillholes for a whopping 90,000m worth of drill core and/or core equivalent.

Both diamond tipped drill rigs (which return whole cores to surface) and Reverse Circulation (RC) drill rigs will be used, the latter collects rock chips from underground in a chamber. 

Want to know more? 

Using free company data available on Market Index, a number of considerations on Red Dirt Metal can be made. These include but are not limited to: 

• Share price of 46c* 

• Market cap of $191.6* 

• Five brokers say “Buy”, one broker says “Hold” 

• One year returns down -40.2% 

• Year to date performance down -3.16% 

• Ranked 142 of 943 materials sector companies 

• Average 4 week volume of 988, 486 shares 

• Company held $18.6m in cash at end of Sep quarter 

• It spent $909,000 in the same period 

• It spent $3.9m in investing activities in same period 

*As at 1155 AEST Friday 20 January 2023 

A look at RDT's one year charts