Pioneer Resource intersects more pollucite at Pioneer Dome

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Pioneer Resources (ASX: PIO) announced drilling on the company’s 100 per cent-held Pioneer Dome LCT pegmatite project in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia has encountered further high-grade pollucite.

Pioneer Resources recently completed a program of close-spaced drill holes, comprising 18 reverse circulation (RC) and 6 pre-collared diamond core holes, totalling 24 holes for 1,785 metres, including 215.7m of HQ core.

RC hole PDRC074 returned

7 metres at 16.2 per cent caesium oxide (Cs2O) from 47m and 6m of 1.65 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O) from 56m.

This included three 1m samples greater than 20 per cent Cs2O.

Pioneer explained that PDRC074 is located approximately 20m north along strike from the recent discovery hole PDRC015, which intersected 6m at 27.7 per cent Cs2O from 47m.

The company claims that drilling has now intersected high-value caesium mineralisation it considers likely to be pollucite.

From visual inspection, Pioneer has determined that nine drill holes have now intersected the lens of high-value caesium mineralisation, likely to be pollucite (with assays received from PDRC015 and PDRC074 only to date), over a strike length of approximately 60m.

Mineralisation remains open to the south, trending into an area where additional caesium geochemistry anomalies are present.

“The drilling program has successfully outlined a lens of the very high value caesium mineral, pollucite,” Pioneer Resources managing director David Crook said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This provides incentive for the company to evaluate the economics of the discovery as a supply source for boutique scale caesium formate production, which is much in demand.”

According to Pioneer’s release, pollucite is a rare mineral of caesium that forms only in extremely differentiated zones of rare-metal lithiumcaesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite systems.

It is found in commercial quantities at the Tanco Mine in Canada and Bikita Mine in Zimbabwe, where it is mined for use in the manufacture of Caesium Formate, a high-density fluid used in high temperature/high pressure oil and gas drilling.

Caesium Formate provides a number of well documented benefits, including: minimal damage to the hydrocarbon-bearing formation resulting in higher production rates, it acts as a lubricant, is non-corrosive and is considered a benign chemical when compared to alternatives.

Website: www.pioresources.com.au