Lithium starting to get attentionEspecially explorers, which is...

Lithium starting to get attention

Especially explorers, which is what this is.

It’s been a while since lithium explorers were able to move the needle, with prices and investment tailing off at the small end of the market.

But Tony Leibowitz and his fellow director John Young have been through the wars before, and the former Pilbara Minerals (ASXLS) chairman’s Nevada lithium play Astute has pulled some eyeballs back to the scene with a monster drill hit at the Red Mountain project in the well-endowed US state.

Home to some of America’s largest potential lithium developments – more on that in a moment – results from the second diamond hole in the maiden drill campaign at the site have pulled up big numbers ahead of a mineral resource estimate due this year.

That includes a hit of 86.9m at 1470ppm (parts per million) or 0.78% lithium carbonate equivalent from 18.3m, including 32.1m at 2050ppm (1.09% LCE) from 46.2m.

The project is located in similar rocks to those that hold Lithium Americas’ 62.1Mt LCE Thacker Pass – now the largest undeveloped lithium reserve in the world – ABML’s 15.8Mt Tonopah Flats and American Lithium’s 9.8Mt TLC project.

The diamond holes come off the back of 11 RC drill holes, which drew up 1518m of core over a 4.6km strike length of the outcropping claystone project.

US coming a knocking,
$1.6 Billion investment on another producer today.