AVZ Minerals’ ongoing development of its flagship Manono project – one of the world’s largest undeveloped lithium resources – has cleared the final hurdle required ahead of being granted a mining licence at the operation.
Based 500 kilometres north of Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Manono’s positive technical opinion from the Congo Department of Mines, clears the way for an imminent decision on its licence.
AVZ said the technical opinion will also green light its collaboration development greement with the Congolese government, which will underpin their long-term partnership.
The affirmative technical view follows news of a US$240 million cornerstone investment from Chinese outfit Suzhou CATH Energy Technologies that provides certainty of funding to progress the venture following receipt of the mining licence and the signing of the collaboration development agreement.
The investment formed part of a whirlwind of new year activity for AVZ after it announced plans to invest $25 million into an early-works program and exploration-drilling program at Manono.
The investment followed a $75 million cash injection from a hugely oversubscribed capital raising the company says could help its shift to lithium production.
As well as being one of the largest undeveloped resources, Manono also comes with near-unrivalled tonnage and a rich grade that spans the entire reserve.
The project lays claim to a monster 400-million tonne mineral resource with lithium grades of 1.65 per cent, tin grades of 715 parts per million and tantalum grades of 34 parts per million.
The JORC-compliant mineral resource at Manono is a substantial 132 million tonnes with a lithium grade of 1.63 percent.
The company completed a 4.5 million tonne per annum definitive feasibility study at the project in 2020 and is now awaiting its mining licence to kick off work at the open pit, hard rock lithium, tin and tantalum venture.
Manono has an existing estimated mine life of 30 years and AVZ says, incredibly, this could be significantly extended given drilling has to-date been mainly concentrated on just 10 per cent of the project’s known pegmatite zone.
With lithium set to play an integral part in the new energy revolution, the granting of the highly anticipated mining licence could propel AVZ onto the global stage as a key supplier to a market feverish for all things battery metals.
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