The Mt Deans Lithium lease (P63/2063) was granted in September quarter 2019. The Mount Deans pegmatite field is located approximately 10 km south of Norseman, in the Eastern Goldfields Terrane of the Yilgarn Craton.
Aruma holds a positive view of the lithium potential of the lease area with previous work having identified swarm pegmatites over 1km in length.
The Mount Deans pegmatite field is Archaean in age and hosted in the north-south trending Dundas Hill greenstone belt. The pegmatite field covers an area of 6 km north to south and 4 km in extension east to west, and comprises several dozens of individual pegmatite sheets and lenses.
Two phases of pegmatites are reported and the Type 2 in the north is considered later (deeper) and is suggested to be closer to a main cauldron or chamber that may host spodumene-rich material desirable for direct shipping. A prime example of this style of deposit is Liontown Resources’ (ASX: LTR) Buldania and Kathleen Valley lithium deposits, where the ‘finger-like’ thin, steep pegmatites coalesce into a thick spodumene zone at shallow depth.
With the upturn in the lithium Market, Aruma will be drilling the area in the next year to see if the spodumene zone is present at depth similar to Liontown’s Kathleen Valley system.
