@GoldBug26 We have already seen plenty of pictures of the spodumene they are referencing, in the 5/12 announcement. But I do understand where you're coming from.
Personally I am not too worried about the lepidolite mineralisation, as it is normal to see small amounts of it in a spodumene rich peg. Although I do wish we got more from the drilling completion announcement than just "visual lithium mineralisation". It would be reassuring to hear that it was indeed completely spod dominant, with only a small portion being lepidolite. As you said, I suppose we will know for sure with assays.
Also a deleterious amount of petalite in our tenements is unlikely, due to the fact that spodumene itself typically comes from petalite breakdown during pegmatite genesis (once pressure within the magma reaches ~300MPa).
Which means, if the pressure was high enough during the formation of our pegmatites to turn petalite into spodumene+quartz near surface (which we can tell from rock chips and historic mine workings), it's more than likely that that pressure was consistent throughout the pegmatite, or at least within the larger area surrounding those samples. So theoretically it "should" be almost all spod-qtz intergrowth.
I must say I was initally surprised at the difference in pegmatite composition only 2.5kms away from Andrada. But of course it still makes sense, only takes a little bit of increase in pressure to set off the necessary chemical change. I am only aware of one single mine that contains both spodumene
and petalite. Quite rare.
Another thing is that Andrada had petalite rock chips at surface of their V1/V2 pegmatite, grading up to 0.9% (see their prospectus). So considering their rock chips showed what was below the surface, it is probably fair to assume the same logic here.
Remember, we can confirm nothing until we see those results end of feb. Looking forward to it
