Askari kicks off African lithium drill program

Askari Metals has kicked off a phase 1 3500m RC drilling campaign at the company’s recently acquired Uis lithium, tantalum and tin project in Namibia, Africa. The initial phase is part of an overall 10,000m campaign designed to test high-grade lithium rock chip results of up to 3.1 per cent lithium oxide. The main target area will be less than 2.5km along strike from an operating battery metals mine.

Other target areas have been lit up by Askari’s recent due diligence surface sampling program and by historical sampling. Askari recently received high-grade assay results of up to 2.1 per cent lithium oxide from spodumene-rich pegmatites sampled in September. Similarly, high-grade pegmatite samples were collected by a private company in July going up to 3.1 per cent lithium oxide.

Askari Metals Executive Director, Gino D’Anna said: “Finding high-grade spodumene dominant lithium mineralisation beneath the surface in this drilling program will be an accelerant for future exploration activities.”

In addition to the company’s initial RC drilling campaign at Uis, Askari plans to continue surface mineralisation mapping and sampling across the unexplored regions of the project.

The advanced project is situated within 2.5km of the operating Uis battery metals mine that hosts a mineral resource of 71.54 million tonnes grading 0.63 per cent lithium oxide, 0.134 per cent tin and 85ppm tantalum. The company believes it has locked onto proven strike extensions of the same mineralised lithologies as the mine next door. Several areas within the project exhibiting the same geology remain untested, leaving the door ajar for further exploration upside. So far there have been more than 80 mapped pegmatites across the project.

Prices for lithium carbonate appear to be comfortably sitting above US$80,000 per tonne this week, up from just US$26,000 in November last year. Similarly, Pilbara Minerals is once again fetching all-time highs for its spodumene concentrate. Last week, in its eighth auction for its 5.5 per cent spodumene concentrate product, the company received bids of US$7805 per tonne. At its first auction a little over a year ago now it received bids of just US$1250 per tonne, representing a gain of 524 per cent. The latest price for its 5.5 per cent concentrate equates to a staggering price of US$8575 per tonne for its premium 6.0 per cent concentrate product.

Notably, the International Energy Agency believes demand for the battery metal by 2040 could be anywhere between 13 and 51 times higher than in 2021.

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