2017 Annual Report to Shareholders
Adelaide, Sep 28, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The focus of Core Exploration Ltd's (
ASX:CXO) activity during the year was on the Company's Finniss Lithium Project near Darwin where Core has defined the first Lithium Resource in the Northern Territory (NT), with a maiden resource of 1.8Mt at 1.5% Li2O.
Core has also conducted and received results from a preliminary mining study at Grants. The study suggests positive outcomes from mining Grants as a DSO spodumene project.
Initial metallurgical test work results for the Grant's Pegmatite results are very encouraging, with a number of standard processing routes identified to produce a spodumene concentrate product of 6% Li2O at recoveries of 80% or better.
The Finniss Lithium Project has substantial infrastructure advantages; being close to grid power, gas and rail and within easy trucking distance by sealed road to Darwin Port - Australia's nearest port to Asia.
Core also has a signed Heads of Agreement (HoA) with Darwin Port to support the Company's potential future use of the nearby East Arm Wharf to export lithium products from Finniss.
As a result of these strong project factors, Core is now advancing its discussions with potential spodumene DSO and concentrate offtake partners to support an early development at the Finniss Project.
Core expects the strongly positive economic outcomes from the preliminary mining study on the current modest Resource at Grants to be magnified as more resources are discovered and defined at Finniss.
In view of these expected positive economics, Core has embarked on early stage baseline studies of environmental aspects at Grants, to enable fast-tracking of development.
Like most exploration projects, Core's first step at Finniss was the acquisition of background data, mapping and sampling known mineral occurrences, then leading on to soil sampling over roughly half of the land holding. Airborne geophysics and remote sensed data were also acquired at an early stage.
Initial geochemical and spectral targets were generated and tested by RAB, Aircore and RC drilling. Grants and BP33 are examples of the early success.
Core has trialled various geophysical techniques to assist in discovering further mineralised pegmatites and will continue to investigate ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the area. A summary of the year's exploration statistics:
- RAB: 411 holes for 3,523m drilled
- Aircore: 1311 holes for 8,481m drilled
- RC: 99 holes for 11,513m drilled
- DD: 11 holes for 1,215m drilled
- Water bores: 6 holes for 376m drilled
- Soil samples: 7,335 collected
- Rock chips: 169 collected
- 2,234 line kilometres of magnetics and radiometric data
Core has at its disposal a broad and diverse ground-holding, an excellent geoscientific dataset, and a well-resourced exploration team to enable it to make further discoveries in the year ahead.
To view the Annual Report, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/M75A382P
About Core Lithium Ltd
Core Lithium Ltd (ASX:CXO) is an emerging lithium producer focused on development of its Finniss Project near Darwin in the Northern Territory. Core owns 100% of Finniss, a major developing project that lies close to existing infrastructure such as the Darwin Port, grid power, gas and rail infrastructure.
The Finniss Project covers a 500km2 tenement holding and 25 historic pegmatite mines. The project area is about 80km from Darwin Port. Exploration work has generated a near term development timeline, with feasibility studies to be completed over the course of 2018 ahead of receipt of approvals in early 2019 and planned first production during 2019.
An aggressive exploration program is under way, which has confirmed the high quality prospectivity across much of the Finniss Project area. Core's stated ambition is to upgrade Finniss' resource base to fast-track commercialisation options.
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