Pan Asia Metals Limited reported that rig mobilisation to the Reung Kiet Lithium Project in southern Thailand is complete and BTDD001, the first hole at the highly prospective Bang Tum prospect, has been collared and drilling is underway. The Reung Kiet Lithium Project (RKLP) is one of PAM's key projects. RKLP is a hard rock project with demonstrated potential for lithium hosted in lepidolite rich pegmatites chiefly composed of quartz, albite, lepidolite with minor cassiterite and tantalite as well as other accessory minerals including some rare earths. The advantages of lepidolite (unlike spodumene) is that lithium can be extracted without the need for energy intensive roasting, and lepidolite has a suite of potential by-products which are recoverable at the concentrator and processing stages of the flow sheet. Peer feasibility work has demonstrated lepidolite has the potential to be one of the highest purity sources of battery grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, that lepidolite is one of the lowest cost sources of lithium hydroxide on an All In Sustaining Costs basis, and that lepidolite has one of the lowest capex requirements on a per tonne LCE basis after by-products. There is little detailed information available regarding previous exploration and mining in the project area but up to the late 1980's southern Thailand was a globally significant tin producer. In Phang Nga Province tin concentrate production of approximately 300,000 tonnes was recorded from 1965 to 1990. In the late 1960's a joint Thai/British Geological Survey study was undertaken in the region. It was during this study that the lithium bearing mineral lepidolite was identified in weathered pegmatites that were being mined for tin at the Reung Kiet and Bang Tum open pit mines as well as at several other mines in close proximity. The 1960's study conducted geological mapping, geochemical analysis and mineralogical descriptions of various tailings, concentrate and rock samples as well as lepidolite beneficiation studies. The lepidolite and lithium bearing muscovite was found to contain 3-4% Li2O. With significant focus on two key tin mines, Reung Kiet and Bang Tum, the survey stated: "the pegmatites at Reung Kiet and Bang Tum may well be the largest un-zoned lepidolite pegmatites yet recorded"; "lepidolite is fairly evenly distributed both along the length of the pegmatite and from wall to wall. In places there is local enrichment of massive lepidolite"; and "much paler-coloured, and also white lepidolite with over 4.0% lithia (Li2O) occurs in the Bang I Tum pegmatite". There is no recorded exploration activity in the project area since the 1960's study. In 2011, Thai company Mae Fah Mining Co. Limited (Mae Fah) lodged prospecting licence applications over the area. In 2014 UK based ECR Minerals Plc (ECR) entered into an option agreement to acquire the project. That option did not proceed and the tenement applications lapsed. Mae Fah and ECR conducted some minor sampling in the area. This work reported 11 rock chip samples from unknown locations with analytical results showing 8 of the 11 samples yielding elevated Li2O, ranging up to 1.9%. Accessory Sn and Ta was also identified.