Essential Metals Limited announced Advancing the Pioneer Dome Lithium Project to `development ready' status in parallel with new drilling programmes. KEY POINTS: Initial steps are being taken to transition the Dome North Resource area to a `development ready' status. These steps include: An application for a Mining Lease over the Dome North Mineral Resource; a capital and operating cost study for two process plant scenarios; a flora and fauna study; and o a hydrology study. Two drilling programmes are also being planned for the December Quarter with the following objectives: Dome North: Shallow diamond core drilling into the upper zones of the Cade and Davy Deposits to upgrade them from Inferred to Indicated categories and provide samples for metallurgical test work; and South Dome: Air-core drilling to test various targets in the southern area of the Pioneer Dome Project. Assay results from the recent Dome North drill programme are now expected in the first half of October. While this drilling does not appear to have identified a new, large lithium-mineralised pegmatite, the results will be important for further targeting of pegmatites in and around the Dome North Resource, which is still very much under-explored. The Pioneer Dome Lithium Project (ESS: 100%) is located in the core of Western Australia's lithium corridor in the Eastern Goldfields, approximately 130km south of Kalgoorlie and 275km north of the Port of Esperance. A lithium Mineral Resource of 11.2Mt @ 1.21% Li2O has been defined at Dome North in the northern part of the Project area. The southern Yilgarn area is recognised as being well-endowed with spodumene deposits, including the Bald Hill Mine, the Mt Marion Mine and the Buldania Project. The world-class Earl Grey deposit and the Mt Cattlin Mine are located further west and south of Pioneer Dome, respectively.