- AVZ Minerals (AVZ) has reported strong results from the final three holes of a nine-hole diamond drilling program at its Manono Lithium and Tin Project
- The results come from the Roche Dure open pit at the project, which is in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- AVZ has previously been unable to drill this area because it was completely underwater during earlier resource drilling programs
- However, now that the company has access to the pit, Managing Director Nigel Ferguson says the drill results show strong lithium mineralisation on the floor surface
- The best intersections include a 180-metre hit at 1.8 per cent lithium oxide and 1119 parts per million of tin from two metres
- AVZ will now re-run its geological resource model of the area to reclassify that portion of the pit floor
- Shares in AVZ are trading grey this morning at 19 cents per share
AVZ Minerals (AVZ) has reported strong results from the final three holes of a nine-hole diamond drilling program at its Manono Lithium and Tin Project.
The results come from the Roche Dure open pit in the wider Manono Project area, which is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This area of the historical pit was previously inaccessible by AVZ because it was completely underwater during earlier resource drilling programs.
Now that the company has been able to drill the site, AVZ said all three holes were collared in fresh or slightly weather pegmatite from the top of the hole.
Some of the best intersections from the final part of the drilling program include a 180-metre hit at 1.8 per cent lithium oxide and 1119 parts per million of tin from two metres, as well as a 245.15-metre hit at 1.73 per cent lithium oxide and 926 parts per million of tin from 11.45 metres.
It should be noted that these results refer only to the down-hole length of the drill holes and AVZ will need to take on more drilling in the area to confirm the true thickness of the pegmatites.
Nevertheless, AVZ Managing Director Nigel Ferguson said these final assay results from the last three drill holes show strong lithium mineralisation on the pit floor surface.
“Drilling also reported higher grade portions developing within the northern portions of the orebody, and that these may even coalesce both up-dip and along strike,” Nigel said.
He said these results could show the start of a much higher-grade core, though more investigation is needed in the area to determine the possibility of finding significant tonnages of high-grade feedstock that could feed the plant in its early years of operation.
Up until now, this area of the Roche Dure pit has been modelled as waste due to a lack of drilling information. As such, now that the latest round of assays has been received by AVZ, the company will merge the results with its existing database and re-run its geological resource model of the area to reclassify that portion of the pit floor.
“Following on from the geology remodelling and coupled with the improvements to the plant design parameters, we will then check the previous mine design against the updated model to optimise the mine design, generate new ore reserves and revisit the DFS results,” Nigel said.
AVZ claims the Manono Project could potentially be one of the largest lithium, caesium and tantalum pegmatite deposits on the globe.
Shares in the company are trading grey at 10:21 am AEST at 19 cents per share. The company has a $549 million market cap.