Chariot sets sight on drill-ready Nigerian lithium targets

Chariot Corporation appears to have struck the lithium jackpot, with site visits confirming sprawling, drill-ready lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites at its Fonlo and Iganna projects in southwest Nigeria.

The two projects are part of a four-project portfolio in the Oyo and Kwara States, which the company recently pounced on after scooping up a 66.667 per cent stake in C&C Minerals Ltd. Nigeria is renowned for its historic tin-tantalum pegmatite belts.

C&C Minerals hold eight exploration licences and two small-scale mining licences across the four project spread. Continental Lithium Ltd will retain the remaining 33.333 per cent interest in C&C.

Fonlo and Iganna both exhibit extensive artisanal workings and massive spodumene crystals, setting up the potential for blockbuster discoveries.

At Fonlo, artisanal workings stretch along strike for up to 6km, with a 40 metre-wide pit hosting a 10m-20m wide central dyke that contains spodumene crystals up to half a meter in length.

The Iganna project holds multiple shallow-dipping sills and a standout near-surface LCT pegmatite averaging 5m-10m in thickness, stretching hundreds of metres along strike, with extensive artisanal workings. Local miners went so far as to develop a 50m vertical shaft along the pegmatite, confirming its continuity under cover. 

A coarse pale pink and cream spodumene is visible in exposed pit walls and in waste dump piles, highlighting Iganna’s prospectivity. Extensive waste dumps and historic workings indicate significant previous production, pointing to the potential for considerable lithium mineralisation near surface.

Structural measurements on-site also provide for the possibility of stacked pegmatite sills, which could add tremendously to the project’s scale if confirmed by the upcoming drill program.

It sets the stage for small-scale mining operations utilising modern mechanical equipment for the first time at both sites, building on the artisanal workings conducted to-date and generating potential early revenue from a lithium concentrate product.

Plans for systematic modern exploration will include high-resolution magnetics, soil sampling, auger drilling or trenching works. An initial 2000m to 4000m diamond drilling blitz will zero in on pits historically worked by artisanal miners. 

Plans are for two to three diamond holes per pit to confirm continuity of width and grade at depth. High-priority targets are also expected to be generated from the planned exploration activities.

Management believes the site visits have strengthened its understanding of the massive geological potential within the two projects. It was unable to visit the other two projects, Saki and Gbugbu, due to scheduling issues.

A major component of the Fonlo pegmatites are coarse-grained spodumene of the green variety, known as “hiddenite”, which are studded with up to 50cm-long crystals in a quartz-feldspar matrix. 

Extensive outcrops and artisanal workings provide a pathway to walk-up drilling targets.

Fonlo has an overburden cover, generally 1m-3m thick, thwarting artisanal miners and forcing them to re-focus their efforts on better-exposed outcropping rocks to chip at with their hand tools.

Management says the Fonlo spodumene rocks appear amenable to simple recovery methods, subject to metallurgical testwork, due to the practice of the old miners producing a finished product for sale, utilising only their hand tools to remove the gangue material.

A total of 23 samples were collected on site, including six for assays and 17 for metallurgy. Samples have been delivered to MSA Labs in Nigeria for preparation and will then be dispatched to MSA in Vancouver, Canada to determine lithium grades. Results are due by December.

Chariot has also zeroed in on a compelling series of drilling targets at the company’s Resurgent lithium project, straddling the Oregon-Nevada border in the United States. A successful surface sampling program generated the high-priority targets.

The company is chasing a game-changing discovery, with Resurgent situated on the eastern half of the renowned McDermitt Caldera stretching across the two states. 

Resurgent is immediately northeast of the Lithium Americas’ groundbreaking Thacker Pass development, which hosts the US’s largest lithium deposit of more than 66 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. It is also right next door to Lithium Americas’ 21.5-million-tonne McDermitt lithium carbonate equivalent project, abutting the deposit to the north.

The presence old workings at Chariot’s Nigerian projects is a good sign as the old-timers rarely braved the heat and the elements to dig shafts if they were not getting rewarded.

If lithium becomes a thing again as many believe it will, Chariot will be well placed with its Nigerian project suite that would have been impossible to pick up only a few short years ago when the market was booming. Over the last three months the lithium carbonate price staged a massive revival before coming off again, however many believe this was just the engine trying to re-start. When it does eventually fire, Chariot Corporation will be amongst the vanguard of significant new players if it can get its Nigerian projects prepped and ready to go. 

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au