Pilgangoora Mineral Resource Jumps 60% To 128.6Mt Confirming World-Class, Long-Life, High Grade Lithium Project

Pilbara Minerals Limited (ASX:PLS) announced a 60 per cent increase in the Mineral Resource at its flagship 100%-owned Pilgangoora Lithium-Tantalum Project in WA’s Pilbara region, paving the way for the completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study next month. The new resource estimate confirms Pilgangoora’s status as the world’s leading lithium development project, with the grade, scale and quality to underpin a low-cost, long-life operation with outstanding technical and financial attributes.
As quoted in the press release:

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Further substantial increase in the JORC 2012 Mineral Resource for the 100%-owned Pilgangoora Tantalum-Lithium Project in WA, including significant upgrade in the resource classification:
  • A 60% increase in the total Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource to 6Mt grading 1.22% Li2O (spodumene) and 138ppm Ta2O5 and 0.63% Fe2O3, containing 1.57Mt of lithium oxide and 39 million pounds of Ta2O5;
  • A 134% increase in the total Measured and Indicated Resource, available for conversion to Ore Reserves, to 6Mt grading 1.27% Li2O (spodumene), 135ppm Ta2O5 and 0.58% Fe2O3, containing 1.06Mt of lithium oxide and 24.9 million pounds of Ta2O5;
  • Within the total Mineral Resource of 128.6Mt, and at a cut-off of 1% Li2O, the Inferred and Indicated Lithium Resource amounts to 91Mt @ 1.43% Li2O, containing 1.3Mt of lithium
• The resource upgrade reinforces Pilgangoora’s status as the world’s leading lithium development project, with the global resource containing a total of 89Mt of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) – the benchmark equivalent raw material used in the lithium industry.

• The new resource will underpin the new Ore Reserve for Pilgangoora which, in turn, will underpin the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), which is now well advanced and on track for completion next
• The upgraded resource includes the results of the recently completed Phase 2 drilling program (28,400m), which brings the total amount of drilling completed by Pilbara since acquiring the Pilgangoora Project to 72,000m of Reverse Circulation drilling and 5,650m of diamond drilling. All current proposed resource drilling has now been completed, with sterilisation drilling continuing for infrastructure.

Pilbara Minerals Managing Director and CEO, Ken Brinsden, stated:

Coming hard on the heels of our first binding off-take agreement, this puts us firmly on track to achieve our timeline of delivering the DFS next month and commencing project construction by year-end. Pilgangoora has all the attributes required to become a low-cost, long-life producer at a time when the industry is undergoing transformational growth.

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