Macarthur Minerals Locates Outcropping Pegmatites With Potential for Hard Rock Lithium

Macarthur Minerals (TSXV:MMS) announced that it has conducted initial helicopter borne reconnaissance over a number of its Pilbara Exploration Lease Applications.
As quoted in the press release:

This initial reconnaissance has located pegmatites, which contain one or more minerals indicative of rare element Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum (“LCT”) class of pegmatites, such as beryl, lepidolite, tin (Sn) and tantalum (Ta) minerals; Sn and Ta to be confirmed by geochemical analysis. Spodumene was also tentatively identified in small crystal clumps in pegmatites, however confirmation is also required from the rock chip geochemical analysis.
The rare element LCT class of pegmatite is the principal “hard rock” source of the commercially important lithium minerals such as petalite and spodumene.
Helicopter Reconnaissance Program
The first reconnaissance of the Company’s Pilbara acreage was conducted by helicopter owing to the large size of Company’s acreage. The Company has one of the largest acreages for ‘hard rock’ lithium of any junior exploration company globally, consisting of Exploration Licence Applications covering a total of 341,000 acres (1,379 square kilometres) in Western Australia, of which 16 applications covering an area of 287,877 acres (1,165 square kilometres) are located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The reconnaissance program was conducted by members of Macarthur’s senior technical team, including Professor Ken Collerson and Dr Dean Carter, both members of the Company’s Lithium Advisory Board and Mr Ralph Porter from CSA Global Pty Ltd, the Company’s independent consulting geologists. Mr David Taplin, Managing Director, supervised the Company’s technical team.
Reconnaissance, including sampling, was only conducted on seven of the Company’s 16 Exploration License Applications in the Pilbara and did not include all areas contained in those applications. In essence, the initial reconnaissance program only assessed the lithium potential of a fraction of the Company’s acreage package.
Pegmatite Rock Chip and Biogeochemical (Spinfex) Sampling
As part of the initial reconnaissance program, rock chip and spinifex (Triodia sp.) samples were collected at outcropping pegmatite locations across the Company’s acreage for analysis.
The spinifex samples were collected to provide an additional geochemical sampling medium. Spinifex plants, which are abundant in the Pilbara have roots that penetrate deep below surface to the water table where they interact with basement rocks. Metals released from the basement by bacterial action and also the effect of humic acid are “pumped” upwards along the root system into the spinifex fronds. The chemistry of the fronds potentially reveals the presence of distinctive trace element chemistries, indicative of mineralisation associated with ultramafic rocks, granitoids or alkaline intrusions. This technique may be useful in identifying anomalies associated with rare element LCT class of pegmatites.
Next Steps
Rock chip and spinifex samples taken from the pegmatites will be analysed to determine rare element content (e.g. lithium, tin, tantalum, beryllium) and to provide information on fractionation state and presence of fractionation trends.
The Company will use the data obtained from the reconnaissance sampling to plan and undertake more comprehensive and detailed sampling programs in the areas containing confirmed rare element pegmatites and will also undertake additional reconnaissance programs to locate rare element LCT type pegmatites within its large acreage package.
The Company is planning to conduct further airborne reconnaissance on its other tenements in the Pilbara not included in this initial program, as helicopter borne surveys allow the technical team to cover vast areas efficiently and expediently.

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