Askari Metals is pulling out all stops as it hunts lithium at its Uis project in Namibia. The company has wrapped up the acquisition of an initial 90 per cent interest in the 114 square km exploration licence known as 7345 and recently announced a binding agreement to purchase the remaining 10 per cent.
The project is located immediately west of Andrada Mining’s Uis mine which hosts resources of 71.5 million tonnes at 0.63 per cent lithium oxide and 0.134 per cent tin and 85 parts per million tantalum. The company is already undertaking project wide detailed geological mapping and sampling which has identified new pegmatite drilling targets and RC drilling has kicked off.
Management is evaluating other complementary projects surrounding its newly acquired Uis lithium project as it nears the end of an initial RC drilling program at its adjoining Namibian exploration tenement 8535 which covers 194 sq km.
Askari has incorporated a Namibian wholly-owned subsidiary to hold its Namibian tenements. As part of the completion of the purchase of the initial 90 per cent of EPL 7345 Askari has issued 2,792,553 shares to the vendor. Half of the shares will be subject to a six-month escrow period, a further quarter are subject to a three-month escrow period with the remainder being freely tradeable.
Exploration on the tenement is being undertaken by South African consulting company Earthlab Technical. Earthlab’s brief is to complete a mapping and sampling program designed to geologically interpret, classify and sample every pegmatite outcrop across the entire tenement. The results of the work will be used to guide future exploration activities across a project area that already boasts over 150 mapped pegmatites, many of which have been previously mined for tin and semi-precious stones. Altered spodumene is visible within the old mines on the site and in waste rock from them.
Another task is to identify the various types of pegmatites and describe their outcrop dimensions and visible mineralogy. Mineralisation will then be tested through assaying multiple rock samples from each pegmatite outcrop. Management believes the relationship between the host rock, pegmatite type and mineralisation will become an important project outcome.
Askari says satellite imagery and ground truthing have highlighted a very high number of pegmatites with much of the tenement yet to be explored. The company is expecting a very large number of pegmatites to be identified by the mapping program.
During due diligence completed for Askari various pegmatite outcrops were sampled and successfully identified high-grade lithium, tin, tantalum and rubidium up to 2.11 per cent lithium oxide, 1.3 per cent tin, 658 parts per million tantalum and 4214 ppm rubidium. The work also identified several types of pegmatite including those hosting lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) in addition to caesium depleted pegmatites which have a greater correlation with tin and tantalum.
Askari’s Uis lithium project is located less than 5km from the township of Uis and less than 2.5km from Andrada’s operating Uis lithium-tin-tantalum mine in west-central Namibia.
To launch into drilling whilst completing the acquisition demonstrates that Askari has a firm belief that it is onto something good in the Namibian lithium space. With its ground adjoining the large Uis mine and high-grade spodumene lithium being returning from samples during due diligence the company appears to have good reason to feel confident. Successful mapping, rock chip and drill results will be proof in the pudding.
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By Terry Bates
