St George Mining Enjoying Support For Lithium Quest

THE CONFERENCE CALLER: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) is receiving plenty of encouragement for its focus on lithium opportunities, executive chairman John Prineas said on the sidelines of the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up.

Prineas told Resources Roadhouse the company’s initial drilling to test the pegmatite potential at its flagship Mt Alexander project in Western Australia in 2022 had returned “very positive” results.

The company recently reported assays with a peak value of 1.8 per cent lithium oxide, while earlier rock chip samples from outcropping mineralisation had returned up to 3.25 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O).

“That’s given us a lot of encouragement to go out harder this year and do a 20,000 metres program,” Prineas said.

St George had also received “great validation and support” through strategic relationships with three of the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery heavyweights, with two providing $2 million each to help fund the drilling program, Prineas said.

Mt Alexander is along strike from Delta Lithium’s (previously Red Dirt Metals) recently-established Mt Ida lithium resource, comprising 12.7 million tonnes grading 1.2 per cent Li2O.

Delta took 60,000m of drilling to establish its resource, Prineas said, while St George had only done about 5,000m so far.

“Hopefully as we continue drilling, we’ll establish a resource similar to them – we have basically the same geological setting, right next to the Copperfield Granite which is the source of the mineralised pegmatites,” he said.

Two rigs were in action at Mt Alexander this week.

St George recently expanded its lithium focus, acquiring seven projects in the Yilgarn.

Prineas said the area had been described as a “super province for lithium”, given several companies had established resources and the tussle for control of Essential Metals and its Pioneer Dome lithium deposit.

St George is also investigating the nickel-copper-platinum group elements (PGE) potential in its portfolio.