Bradda Head gets conditional permission for Wikieup drilling
By Josh White
Date: Monday 08 Nov 2021
(Sharecast News) - North America-focussed lithium developer Bradda Head has received conditional permission to begin exploration drilling at its Wikieup sedimentary claims in central Arizona, it announced on Monday, pending bond payment adjudication, which was expected in the fourth quarter.
The AIM-traded firm said the permission referred to 9.8 square kilometres of Bradda's Wikieup project, which totalled 29.3 square kilometres covering sections 12, 13 and the Wikieup NW exploration targets.
It had already released "promising" initial results from its 2021 geophysics programme at the Wikieup project, showing clay thicknesses of up to 90 metres, comparable to Arizona Lithium's Big Sandy deposit adjacent to Wikieup.
Drilling was expected to start in the fourth quarter, with Bradda Head already engaging the "highly-respected" drilling contractor Boart Longyear to carry out the environmentally sensitive sonic drilling programme.
The company said the programme was focussed on claims that were about 20% of Bradda's sedimentary landholding totalling 47 square kilometres, and had the potential to add to the firm's existing resource at its Burro Creek East asset, which covered 2% of the company's claim package.
Surface samples, with grades of up to 1,750 parts of lithium per million, had been identified at Wikieup, with the company saying its geologists were "confident" that the upcoming drill programme would confirm the project's prospectivity and define additional lithium mineralisation to support a maiden resource estimate in the second quarter of 2022.
"Bradda is continuing with its fast-track efforts to unlock the value of its sedimentary lithium opportunity at the Wikieup-Burro Creek area," said chief executive officer Charles FitzRoy.
"It has already embarked on an aggressive drilling programme at its Burro Creek license area, due to complete this month, and the grade and depth of the lithium mineralisation found during this campaign has been encouraging.
"It is, therefore, with a high level of optimism that we are now starting phase two of our current drilling programme plan at our Wikieup licence area."
FitzRoy said that would bring the total area drilled on the company's extended land package to 20%, comparing "favourably" with the 2% it had inherited.
"This is a huge and important step for the company, with a maiden resource from Wikieup planned for the second quarter of 2022.
"The surface sampling undertaken by our geological team at Wikieup has identified highly-prospective areas with the potential for lithium mineralised clay, and recent geophysical work has indicated that this clay is up to 90 metres thick
"This gives us great optimism going into this next phase of operations."
At 1204 GMT, shares in Bradda Head Lithium were down 0.08% at 7.62p.
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