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Golden State writes its Yule lithium story with acreage boost, $2m placement

Golden State is planning to carry out lithium exploration after expanding its acreage. Picture: Getty Images.


Golden State is demonstrating its focus on lithium by expanding the footprint of its Yule project in Western Australia’s Mallina Basin and raising $2 million to fund exploration.

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The company has moved to acquire exploration rights adjacent to the Nomad lithium prospect, taking its total landholding in one of Australia’s most prospective lithium provinces up to 766sq km.

How prospective, you ask?

Well, it is hard to go much further than Pilbara Mineral’s world-class Pilgangoora lithium mine, which not only has two processing plants capable of producing 580,000tpa of spodumene concentrate and a mine life of more than 25 years, but also plans to further expand production.

That the region also hosts Mineral Resources’ Wodgina project, Wildcat Resources’ Tabba Tabba lithium-tantalum project and Morella’s Mallina lithium project, just adds greater certainty that Golden State Mining (ASX:GSM) is at the right address for lithium exploration.

And it is not just lithium. The Mallina Basin is also home to De Grey Mining’s giant, play-opening Hemi gold project, which currently tips the scales at 8.5Moz.

$2 million raised via placement

Little wonder that sophisticated and professional investors were quick to open their wallets after the company rattled the tin for a $2 million placement through the issue of 74.1 million new shares priced at 2.7c each.

“We have increased our ground position at Yule to around 766sq km in one of Australia’s premier mineral discovery provinces in the Mallina Basin,” managing director Michael Moore said.

“The opportunity to explore for lithium and gold over this new area increases the potential for a significant discovery by GSM.

“Recent drilling has already revealed the interpreted signature of a potential lithium pegmatite system at the Nomad prospect.

“This deal secures the remaining structural and targeting components for the Nomad model, which bears many analogies to the established Pilbara LCT pegmatite geological settings at Wodgina and Pilgangoora.”

Lithium and gold exploration plans

With additional tenure and funding in place, Golden State will now carry out statutory work program and heritage approvals for its planned aircore and reverse circulation drilling program from July this year.

This will test a potential pegmatite source whose interpreted signature was delineated by lithium-caesium-rubidium pathfinders from multiple previous AC and RC drill holes.

The company will also consider additional geophysical methods to provide more effective drill targeting data.

Further lithium and gold drilling and exploration work will continue throughout the balance of the calendar year.

Golden State also plans to carry out AC drilling at Paynes Find in the third quarter of 2023 to test for potential lithium mineralisation.

Recent geochemical sampling shows evidence of potentially highly fractionated granites and pegmatites and delineated two priority target areas of anomalous lithium and pathfinders.

AC and RC drilling is also planned in the second half of 2023 on several gold targets at Yule just 13km from De Grey’s Hemi gold discovery.

The company also plans to carry out AC drilling in the fourth quarter at Southern Cross East over interpreted buried greenstone that was previously overlooked due to its minimal magnetic signature.

Nomad Prospect

With three previous AC and one follow-up RC drill programs having delineated a robust lithium, caesium and rubidium bedrock anomaly with high levels of associated arsenic over a strike length of about 2km, Nomad is unsurprisingly a recent focus of the company’s lithium exploration at Yule.

And there’s potential for more given that lithium pegmatite pathfinder vectors, in combination with a favourable mafic host rock and antiformal fold hinge structural interpretation, suggest that E47/2692 represents an extension of the company’s exploration model.

This could add another 3.5km to Nomad’s prospective strike length.

Golden State noted that with the rarity of caesium in the crust and its being appreciably enriched in rare metal pegmatites in this type of geological setting, pathfinder vectors such as 6m at 421 parts per million caesium are considered to be very encouraging.

Target M1 is the priority target at Nomad based upon the presence of caesium values and favourable structural position in the core of an interpreted major antiform.

Additionally, significant faulting is also associated with this area, making it a “damaged zone” that can preferentially accommodate later intrusions and serve to focus potentially mineralised fluids and magmas.

Target M2 is based on overlapping lithium-caesium-arsenic anomalism on the western side of the major antiform, close to an interpreted refold hinge zone. It also coincides with a major fault crosscutting the major antiform.

Target M3 is based on anomalous lithium-rubidium-caesium intercepts within associated mafic schists across a major curvilinear shear zone to the south and west of the major antiform. This type of geological setting is also considered a conceptual gold target.


This article was developed in collaboration with Golden State Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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