- Mali Lithium (MLL) has encountered additional, thick, high-grade mineralisation at its lithium project in southern Mali
- Best results from the project include 1.84 per cent lithium oxide
- A mineral resource update for the project is currently anticipated for the end of March 2020
- Mali Lithium is currently up an even five per cent with shares trading for 10.5 cents apiece
Mali Lithium (MLL) has encountered additional, thick, high-grade mineralisation at its Goulamina Lithium Project.
Mali Lithium is extremely pleased with drilling at Goulamina so far with the discovery of numerous additional mineralised pegmatite intersections.
These are extensions to previously known pegmatites and indicate the potential to significantly improve the size and level of confidence of the Goulamina mineral resource.
Best results include 39 metres at 1.84 per cent lithium oxide, 44 metres at 1.76 per cent lithium oxide from 159 metres, and 50 metres at 1.60 per cent lithium oxide from 137 metres.
A mineral resource update for Goulamina is currently anticipated around the end of March 2020.
A new ore reserve estimate will be incorporated into the definitive feasibility study that is currently underway on the project.
The update is expected approximately four weeks later at the end of April.
As well as revising the mineral resource and ore reserve, the current drilling program is testing geophysical and structural hydrological targets within Goulamina.
The drilling program will also aid in the completion of geotechnical testwork relating to the construction of the process plant and tailings storage facility.
The program consisted of 27 reverse circulation (RC) holes, for 5145 metres, and 440 assays have been received of the 2622 submitted to date.
A further 36 holes remain to be drilled, including 9 RC holes at Danaya, 5 exploration holes at Bara, 8 exploratory water bores, 3 diamond tails, and 11 short diamond geotechnical holes.
Mali Lithium is using a laboratory in Johannesburg, South Africa for assaying and due to high levels of drilling activity in the region, samples will take six weeks to be processed.
A revision of the Goulamina ore reserve from this drilling program may have a material impact on the net present value (NPV) of the project.
Given that the NPV will be one of the key outputs of the definitive feasibility study, Mali Lithium believes it makes sense to include these results and re-estimate the ore reserve before completing the study.
This will mean a slight delay of around six weeks in the release of the definitive feasibility study now to be more likely around mid-May.
The slight delay will allow the improved lithium results announced in December 2019 to be incorporated into the study.
“In the current market, maximising the project value and further distinguishing Goulamina as world leading resource makes complete sense,” Managing Director Chris Evans said.
“We look forward to doing this through the delivery of the definitive feasibility study and moving ahead with the project development from there,” he added.
Mali Lithium is currently up an even five per cent with shares trading for 10.5 cents apiece at 11:43 am AEDT.