AVZ Minerals Drills Lithium From Roche Dure Pit Floor
THE DRILL SERGEANT: AVZ Minerals Limited (ASX: AVZ) declared further high-grade lithium and tin mineralisation results from drilling undertaken at the company’s Manono lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
AVZ Minerals scored the results during Mineral Resource drilling of the Manono project from the last three of nine planned diamond drill holes at Roche Dure in previously undrilled areas beneath the historical pit which were previously inaccessible and under water during the earlier resource drilling programs.
All three holes were collared in fresh or slightly weathered pegmatite from the top of the hole, returning intersection of:
180 metres at 1.8 per cent lithium (Li2O) and 1,119ppm tin;
245.15m at 1.73 per cent Li2O and 926ppm tin; and
218.6m at 1.69 per cent Li2O and 1,152ppm Sn.
Having now completed this pit floor drilling program at Roche Dure, and having received all outstanding assays, AVZ indicated a new resource estimate is now underway to update the previous May 2019 Mineral Resources.
“The final assay results from these last three of the nine planned drillholes on the Roche Dure pit floor again show strong lithium mineralisation from the pit floor surface,” AVZ Minerals managing director Nigel Ferguson said in the company’s ASX announcement.
“Additionally, 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.
“This may present as the start of a much higher-grade core which will need further investigation to determine the possibility of finding more significant tonnages of high-grade feedstock, apart from those at Carriere de L’Este, that could feed the plant in its early years of operation to shorten the pay-back period.”
“Now these assays have been reported they will be merged with our current database and we will re-run the geological resource model to reclassify that portion of the pit floor which was previously modelled as waste due to the lack of drilling information.
“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.”
Email: admin@avzminerals.com.au