Kestrel pegmatite soars above 3% lithium for Askari Metals

Askari Metals Ltd (ASX:AS2) has discovered lithium mineralisation grading more than 3 percent across a thickness of 30 metres through mapping and sampling of its Kestrel pegmatite target, part of the wider Uis Lithium Project in Namibia.

Rock chip samples from the pegmatite yielded grades of 3.06 percent lithium oxide (Li2O), 0.38 percent tin oxide (SnO2) and 672 parts per million (ppm) tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5), while mapping work showed it to be 30 metres in length, with a strike length of 1.4 kilometres.

According to additional mapping work, Kestrel is a fertile LCT (lithium-cesium-tantalum) type pegmatite which is well-mineralised and highly fractionated.

Chief Exploration and Project Manager (Africa) Cliff Fitzhenry, said that with the features identified, Kestrel was a ‘pegmatite of scale’.

“It also displays high grade lithium mineralisation, with a total of 10 samples displaying assays of more than 1 percent lithium oxide, with the best results being 3.06 percent, 2.97 percent, 2.91 percent, 2.88 percent and 2.28 percent,” he said.

“Kestrel will be a priority target for us to test during the EPL 8535 Phase 1 trenching campaign during which we will also be testing further targets previously identified on the licence.

“We continue to demonstrate that the Uis Lithium Project is capable of delivering significant pegmatites of size and scale hosting high-grade mineralisation. Our recently completed Phase 1 trenching program at EPL 7345 has shown that this exploration method is highly effective and is delivering robust, high confidence drill targets which we will test this year.”

Uis is located in the Erongo Region of west-central Namibia, Africa, and contained more than 120 pegmatites which have been mapped throughout the target area, with many of these having previously been mined for tin and precious stone.

Askari Metals has been trading at 5.2 cents.