Delta (ASX:DLI) deposits 752koz gold resource to Mt Ida lithium land

Delta Lithium has returned a big-time upgrade to its gold resource at Mt Ida, now standing at 6.6 million shovel-ready tonnes at 3.5 grams per tonne for 752,000 ounces 100 kilometres west of Leonora in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.

The refurbishment reaped an 82 per cent uptick in contained gold across the project, and at the 4.8Mt @ 4.4g/t Baldock deposit now entrenched at 674,000oz as one of the few high-grade deposits in WA over half a million.

A maiden 27,000 ounces at 1.7g/t resource was also stamped in at the Golden Vale prospect and Delta sees plenty of room for growth.

Delta Lithium used a more conservative approach to reporting over the maiden resource and it already has drilling underway with an aim of exceeding the one-million-ounce mark.

And the kicker is that Mt Ida was better known as a lithium project, with a maiden 12.7Mt at 1.2% lithium oxide resource sitting alongside all others on granted mining leases.

The scoping study over a gold development is expected to come within months, and with permits in place, Delta, or somebody else at least, could soon have it in production.

Delta Managing Director James Croser said it was a wonderful result for shareholders, reaffirming its long-held belief that the Mt Ida gold system had significant scale and upside.

“Baldock is fast becoming one of very few, large high-grade undeveloped gold deposits in WA in excess of 500koz

“The commencement of open pit mining has been approved, and the underground approval with the Department is submitted and pending.”

“We are investigating the best options for Delta shareholders to crystalise value from our gold, which can then be applied to further developing our core lithium business.”

While there is a resource in place at Mt Ida, any developments toward lithium are certain to come from Delta’s Yinnetharra project in the West Australian Gascoyne.

Delta has been busy building its position in the critical minerals frontier through the price downturn, signing farm-in deals with its neighbours to swell Yinnetharra to a long-lived scale for mining.

The company’s Non-Executive Chairman and Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) boss Chris Ellison has previously flagged that Delta was not a gold mining company and could trade the gold deposits at Mt Ida to leverage more premium lithium territory.

MinRes further built its stake in Delta alongside Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting late last year, an interest which hopped up by more than 20% in share price on the gold upgrade in early trading.

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