Australian-based emerging lithium-boron supplier, ioneer today announced further drilling results for its 100 per cent-owned Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada, USA.

Plan of South Basin mineral resource area showing drill hole locations

A 45-hole drilling program completed in late January was designed to increase the confidence of the Ore Reserve estimate by infill drilling of the planned starter pit and to test for southern extensions of mineralisation outside of the current Ore Reserve.

Results received for the first 17 of the 45 holes are highly encouraging with lithium and boron grades consistently higher than the Ore Reserve grades.

In the group of ten holes drilled during this program at the southern end of the deposit, grades are approximately 15 per cent higher for lithium and 20 per cent higher for boron when compared to the Ore Reserve grades used in the 2018 Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS).

Results from this drilling program are being incorporated into an updated Mineral Resource, Ore Reserve and mine plan for the PFS.

The high-grade lithium-boron mineralisation remains open to the south and additional drilling is being planned to test for further extensions.

Managing Director of ioneer, Mr Bernard Rowe, commented that the recently completed drilling program has further extended lithium-boron mineralisation and confirmed high-grade shallow mineralisation around the southern end of the deposit.

“The strong lithium and boron grades within the proposed starter pit are expected to provide stronger cash flows in the early years of the Project,” said Mr Rowe.

“The results from the drilling program are being incorporated into the updated mine plan and Ore Reserve estimate as part of the Rhyolite Ridge Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) schedule for completion in Q3 2019.”

Source: www.ioneer.com