The IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO) share price is lower today following a company announcement from the miner's new subsidiary, Western Areas Limited.
At the time of writing, IGO shares are swapping hands for $12.82 each, down 1.08% on yesterday's closing price. However, it's currently outperforming the broader S&P/ASX 300 Metals & Mining Industry (ASX: XMM) sector which is down 1.67%.
Returns for the IGO share price this year to date are seen below, charted against the Metals and Mining index.
What did IGO announce?
IGO advised that a joint venture (JV) owned by Western Areas has announced "significant exploration potential for lithium pegmatite mineralisation" at a prospecting site.
The discoveries were made at the Mt Alexander Ni-Cu-PGE Project, located in the Goldfields of Western Australia.
The project is 25% owned by Western Areas [and, therefore, IGO] and 75% owned by St George Mining Ltd (ASX: SGQ).
The release notes that assays of 45 initial pegmatite rock chip samples at the site returned positive values for lithium, caesium, tantalum, and rubidium.
These minerals purportedly support the potential for more lithium mineralisation at further depth.
Executive chairman of St George Mining John Prineas said the results from Mt Alexander were "very encouraging" to support further exploration.
"We are particularly excited by the strong rubidium values in sample assays received to date – this is
an excellent indicator of pegmatites favourable for lithium mineralisation," he added.
Further testing and field exploration has now commenced at Mt Alexander to define targets for drill testing.
These targets will be finalised when the field campaign is complete, with the maiden drill program at the site scheduled to commence in Q4 2022.
The news has seen a mixed reaction from investors today with the IGO share price sliding in morning trading. Today's movement also follows the diversified miner's record FY22 results last month.
IGO share price snapshot
In the past 12 months, the IGO share price has clipped a 32% gain, after surging from a low of $9.24 in the July bounce in equity markets.
The company has a current market capitalisation of around $9.65 billion.
