Marble Bar
The Marble Bar Lithium Project (MBLP) is located 150km south-east of Port Hedland and 15km north-east of Marble Bar in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
One of the world’s major hard-rock lithium provinces, the region hosts the world-class Pilgangoora (owned by Pilbara Minerals Limited, ASX: PLS) and Wodgina deposits (owned in joint venture between Albemarle and Mineral Resources Limited, ASX: MIN). The MBLP exhibits spodumene bearing pegmatite intrusives within the project area greenstone, which is a similar geological setting to that as seen in those nearby lithium deposits.
The MBLP is located in a well-established mining region with access to infrastructure. The sealed Marble Bar Road that connects Port Hedland to Marble Bar traverses the tenement area.
Within the MBLP, Global Lithium has to date focused on exploring the Archer deposit, which comprises a swarm of spodumene bearing pegmatites over a 3km by 1km zone. In December 2022, the Company reported an upgraded JORC 2012 Mineral Resource of 18.0Mt at 1.0% Li2O. The upgrade was a 71% increase on the maiden JORC 2012 Mineral Resource of 10.5Mt at 1.0% Li2O declared in June 2020.
The 2022 drilling program at MBLP added 288 drillholes for a total of 45,528m of RC drilling to the resource database. The drilling increased the overall tonnage and an Indicated Resource was defined within an area of infill drilling.
The primary purpose of the program was to test the extent of the lithium-bearing pegmatites and gain valuable knowledge of their formation. The program developed MBLP into a much larger scale exploration project, with the prospective strike length expanding out to 25km length and containing four additional prospective pegmatite corridors.
In 2023, Global Lithium followed up its CY22 campaign with further RC drilling at MBLP which focused on the Corridor 2 area, east of the Archer deposit. A small drill program was also completed at the Twin Veins gold prospect and returned positive results.
Previously, assay results from a 5,454m RC drilling program undertaken in Q2 2021 confirmed lithium mineralisation extends over more than 6km of strike, including MBRC0135, which was drilled outside the Archer mineral resource envelope. Exceptional results included: 28m @ 1.51% Li2O and 46ppm Ta2O5 from 69m, and 9m @ 1.11% Li2O and 42ppm Ta2O5 from 108m.
In 2024, Global Lithium was successful in Round 29 of the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS), resulting in a Western Australian Government grant to co-fund drilling of a gold-silver-copper target within the Marble Bar Project in FY24/25.
Global Lithium has expanded its landholding at the Marble Bar Project over the years. In July 2021, the Company acquired tenements E45/4669 and E45/4724 immediately south of the Project. The tenements became part of MBLP, almost doubling the size of the Company’s landholding. Tenements E45/5843, E45/5812 and E45/5748 to the east of the Project were all granted by year end.
[1] Significant intercepts calculated at a 0.4% Li2O cut-off grade, minimum 1m thickness and widths including up to 2m internal dilution.