JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed mineral exploration company Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation has mobilised a drilling programme at its Neptune property, located in Nevada’s Clayton Valley, in the US, to explore for lithium brines.
The US Bureau of Land Management had approved ten exploration drill hole locations at Neptune, with Nevada Sunrise planning to drill up to three vertical holes to depths ranging from about 380 m to 480 m as an initial test of the interpreted Neptune sub-basin.
A member of the company's geological team was on site this week to supervise final preparations for the drilling programme. Access roads and drill pads for the first two holes had been constructed in the past few days and a third site was under construction. Drilling was expected to begin on or around March 6, 2016.
ABOUT NEPTUNE
Located in an active area of lithium exploration and mining, Neptune comprised 316 unpatented 20-acre placer claims totalling about 6 320 acres (2 557 ha). The Silver Peak lithium mine operation, acquired by Albemarle Corporation in 2015, had continuously extracted lithium minerals from brines since 1966 and was located about 10 miles (15 km) to the north of Neptune.
Nevada Sunrise had an option to earn a 100% interest in Neptune, subject to a 3% gross overriding royalty.
The geologic setting within Clayton Valley, with its thick sequence of clastic sediments and evaporate deposits, was prospective for metal-enriched brines. In 2011, Nevada Sunrise acquired geophysical data collected at Neptune by a previous land-holder, which showed the presence of conductive zones within a faulted sub-basin exceeding a depth of 1 300 m in two locations.
Nevada Sunrise was targeting the conductive zones for their potential to contain lithium-bearing brines.