Venari Minerals NL has submitted an Exploration Plan of Operations for the Red Mountain lithium project in Nevada, seeking to expand its authorised surface disturbance sevenfold from 5 acres to 35 acres.

The submission shifts the project away from small Notice-level approvals, such as a 6-drill-site Notice of Intent approved in June 2026 that restricted total disturbance across the property to 4.75 acres. The new Plan of Operations has now been issued for public notice under expedited National Environmental Policy Act assessment provisions.

Subject to public notice completion and regulatory approvals, the expanded footprint will initially authorise 35 acres of disturbance encompassing 124 drill sites. Venari expects the approvals to be in place by the end of 2026, paving the way for a maiden Scoping Study targeted for the first quarter of 2027.

Venari staked the Red Mountain property in August 2023 and subsequently defined a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate of 500 million tonnes at 1,139 ppm lithium for 3.03 million tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent. The company characterises the property as its flagship asset, backed by an oversubscribed $6.1 million capital raising completed in July 2026 to fund advanced drilling, metallurgical testing, and the upcoming scoping study.

The broader disturbance allowance is designed to support systematic drill testing across the project's substantial JORC Exploration Target of 10.7 to 18.6 million tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent.

Concurrently, a 12-hole, 3,360-metre diamond drilling campaign is underway at the site, targeting the high-grade northern sector of the resource to upgrade portions from Inferred to the higher-confidence Indicated category.

“In the meantime, we have an active exploration program underway with plenty of updates pending. Our infill diamond drilling program at Red Mountain is progressing well, with the third of 12 planned holes approaching completion, and two holes being cut ahead of submission for assaying. This program is focused on upgrading the high-grade northern sector of the Mineral Resource Estimate from Inferred to the higher-confidence Indicated category.”

— Tony Leibowitz, Executive Chairman

The current drilling program and upcoming permitting milestones form core elements of Venari's broader strategy to advance Red Mountain toward development studies.

Read the full announcement: Expanded Exploration Plan to Accelerate Red Mountain