Australian metals exploration company Stelar Metals has secured approval from the New South Wales Resource Regulator, the state’s work health and safety regulator, to begin the drilling programme at its Trident lithium project.

Spread across 260km², the Trident lithium project is located 50km from Broken Hill, NSW, Australia.

The project extends towards the upper sequences of Broken Hill stratigraphy and includes Euriowie Tin Field, which has more than 250 mineral occurrences, along a 15km strike.

Claimed to be highly prospective for hard-rock lithium mineralisation, Trident is also one of Australia’s first lithium and tin mining provinces.

Historical records also confirm the presence of fractionated pegmatites that are highly anomalous in minerals including lithium, caesium, tantalum, tin and rubidium (Li-Ce-Ta-Sn-Rb).

Stelar’s lithium drilling programme at the site will include drilling up to 19 sites which it has identified as prospective for lithium mineralisation. As part of the programme, nearly 3,000m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling is expected to begin next month.

The drilling programme is claimed to have been designed to be flexible to conduct an initial assessment of the orientation and morphology of known lithium-mineralised pegmatites.

Furthermore, targeting below the known oxide zone can also help in assessing the mineral zoning in the Trident pegmatite system and testing the presence of spodumene.

Stelar Metals CEO Colin Skidmore said: “Stelar’s team is to be congratulated for the enormous effort that has gone into working up this project since acquisition earlier this year, both technically and through robust stakeholder engagement.

“This has resulted in the drilling being approved on schedule and the team looks forward to participating in this exciting first drill program at Trident.”