Atlantic Lithium Limited (AIM: ALL, ASX: A11, OTCQX: ALLIF, “Atlantic Lithium” or the “Company”), the African-focused lithium exploration and development company targeting to deliver Ghana’s first lithium mine, is pleased to announce that multiple broad intervals of visible spodumene have been observed in drilling outside of the current Mineral Resource Estimate1 (“Resource” or “MRE”) at the Company’s flagship Ewoyaa Lithium Project (“Ewoyaa” or the “Project”) in Ghana, West Africa.
Highlights
- Multiple broad intervals of visible spodumene reported in drilling outside of the current MRE1, significantly increasing the potential for a resource upgrade.
- Longest reported continuous pegmatite interval in the 2023 drilling programme to date of 106m in hole GRC1020 from 6m at the Dog-Leg extension target on the northern tip of the Ewoyaa Main deposit.
- Visible coarse-grained spodumene fragment intervals reported at shallow depths in holes:
- GRC1017: 51m interval of 25-30% visual estimated spodumene modal abundance from 83m
- GRC1020: 74m interval of 20-25% visual estimated spodumene modal abundance from 39m and a 41m interval of 20-25% visual estimated spodumene modal abundance from 137m
- GRC1021: 24m interval of 15-25% visual estimated spodumene modal abundance from 93m
- Coarse-grained, P1-type spodumene pegmatite is preferred for the Dense Media Separation (“DMS”) process flowsheet considered in the Definitive Feasibility Study for the Project (refer announcement of 29 June 2023).
- Resource drilling ongoing; completion of the enhanced 26,500m planned programme (refer announcement of 7 November 2023) targeted for Q2 2024.
NOTE: Visual estimates of mineral abundance should never be considered a proxy or substitute for laboratory analyses where concentrations or grades are the factor of principal economic interest. Visual estimates also potentially provide no information regarding impurities or deleterious physical properties relevant to valuations.
Commenting, Neil Herbert, Executive Chairman of Atlantic Lithium, said:
“In line with our aim of delivering an increased resource at the Ewoyaa Lithium Project, we are very pleased to report broad intervals of visible, coarse-grained spodumene in multiple drill holes near surface and outside of the current MRE footprint. These intervals further improve our confidence in delivering an updated MRE upon completion of the current drilling programme in Q2 2024.
“We are excited to have intersected our longest pegmatite interval in the 2023 drilling programme to date. Located outside of the current Resource footprint and occurring only 6m from surface, the interval includes highlight intersections of visible coarse-grained spodumene over 74m from a depth of 39m and over 41m from a depth of 137m, respectively.
“The coarse-grained, P1-type nature of the spodumene fragments observed in Reverse Circulation drilling chips is very encouraging as it performs favourably in DMS-only processing, as planned at the Ewoyaa Lithium Processing Plant, with good recoveries.
“We look forward to providing further updates from the ongoing drilling programme in due course.”
Figure 1: 106m continuous pegmatite interval from 6m observed in hole GRC1020 with coarse fragments of visible spodumene evident. Further pegmatite with coarse-grained visible spodumene intersected from 116m to 122m and 137m to 178m with end of hole at 250m (not shown in this photo)NOTE: Visual estimates of mineral abundance should never be considered a proxy or substitute for laboratory analyses where concentrations or grades are the factor of principal economic interest. Visual estimates also potentially provide no information regarding impurities or deleterious physical properties relevant to valuations.
Broad Intervals of Visible Spodumene
Drilling outside of the current MRE1 has intersected multiple intervals of pegmatite, including multiple broad intervals of coarse-grained visible spodumene at the Dog Leg prospect extension (refer Figure 1 and Figure 3). The drilling forms part of the ongoing resource infill and extensional programme, which was recently increased from 18,500m to 26,500m of planned drilling, due for completion in Q2 2024 (refer announcement of 7 November 2023).
Highlight logged pegmatite intervals with visible estimates of spodumene modal abundance in RC drill chips are summarised in Table 1 below, with all logged intervals and collar details reported in Table 2 and Table 3.
Table 1: Highlight visual estimations of spodumene abundance in logged pegmatite intervals in new reported drillingNOTE: Visual estimates of mineral abundance should never be considered a proxy or substitute for laboratory analyses where concentrations or grades are the factor of principal economic interest. Visual estimates also potentially provide no information regarding impurities or deleterious physical properties relevant to valuations.
The drilling reported herewith is located at the Dog-Leg extension target on the northern tip of the Ewoyaa Main deposit, at the confluence of the Ewoyaa Main trend and the Ewoyaa North-East trend (refer Figure 2 and Figure 6).
A similar structural setting occurs further north at the Ewoyaa Main Sill deposit where the north-south trending Ewoyaa Main trend intersects the east-west trending Grasscutter trend and is significant as it results in flat lying sill geometry mineralisation. A similar pattern is emerging here at the Dog-Leg prospect with drilling evidence pointing to a potential flat lying geometry which may result in additional resource growth (refer Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6).
Anticipated timing for assay receipt and review is approximately 2 to 3 months from the date of this announcement.
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