I thought some who would wish to take a positive stance on the upcoming Karratha Lithium Street Party would like to see a comparison between the ARV/GRE/RDN/NVO tenements and four of the top lithium mines or projects in West. Australia. Namely Pilgangoora, Liontown's Kathlene Valley, Greenbushes and Azure's recent discovery.
The comparison is based on Radiometrics.
Federal and State Govts, and larger companies have used aircraft to detect the weak gamma rays emitted by radioactive materials in rocks and soil, and it is found that there is a correlation with certain aspects of the underlying geology.
The data is collected for radioactive potassium, thorium and uranium. and are shown on maps as red, green and blue regions, with the intensity of colour proportional to the intensity of the gamma rays detected.
The suggestion is that pegmatites are often associated with potassium, and especially so if they are fertile with lithium.
You will notice in the following diagrams that each of the large known lithium deposits, and also the areas of the Andover Intrusion we are interested in are associated with very strong red regions representing the gamma rays emitted by mildly radioactive potassium.
I have marked up the approximate location of the mines at Pilgangoora, Kathlene Valley and Greenbushes, and the area of exploration for AZS.
For the ARV/GRE/RDN/NVO tenements I have circled the general area in the west where we might expect mines to be developed, based on the fact that these areas have received the only anned assay results.
For the overall Andover Intrusion area the possible north and south trends are marked up with arrows.
Clearly this is all very speculative, and is not intended as investment advice.
But if it leads to some discussion I would be very pleased.
As a further point of interest it is known that a fertile pegmatite must be expelled from a fertile granitic intrusion and cool and crystalise within an appropriate host rock, And that the solidification must take place within a favorable temperature and pressure region surrounding the granitic intrusion.
Also, now it appears to me that we should be looking for our lithium pegmatites in or in close proximity to a region of weekly radioactive potassium.
First the maps for the 4 known deposits - I acknowledge these maps are produced from GeoVIEW.WA, with thanks.
1. Pilgangoora. There is also a reference to PGD, which I prepared for another post.
2. Liontown's Kathleen Valley Mine. I can't be sure whether the mine is in the strong red, or nearby. Note the trends going south and south west.
The presence of the whitish area might be relevant to our discussion of Andover West later.
3. Greenbushes. Note the red potassium regions are confined to the mine region only - the surrounding blue region is uranium, and some 'green' thorium is also seen.
4. AZS Andover discovery. Note the scale bar of 4km is twice that for Greenbushes. Just a point of interest, don't take too much notice.
5. Now for our (very low capped) contenders for the next prize. From the left.
The western end of the Andover Intrusion is enclosed with the start where GRE first announced its rock samples with good grade Then through the north and south region in the ARV JV which defined the possible N and S trends. Too early to call that I think, because the northern most region for RDN looks very prospective.
I wont comment on the very large area of RDN and ARV to the south of the white gash - I hope the company geos have boots on ground, and will eventually find their way there.
The white gash itself might be an area of erosion (or sediment build up) - note that the rivers and watercourses have a slight bluish tint of uranium, interesting!
Next to note are the two blue arrows depicting what may be the N and S trends.
The N one passing through ARV's Carlow Castle tenement, nicely shaded red. And the S trend passing through a week area (which may just mean the pegs are under cover) into the strong NVO prospects and on without stopping to AZS, with ERW in the picture and RDN nicely placed in contact with the main region.
So there you have it, if you can make anything of it, please comment.
For myself I am very happy to hold LT and wait feeling very confident that at least one of my Party Players will return the goods.
Cheers - Not advice, OK?
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