TNM Drill Down: Azure Minerals leads lithium assays with Andover project in Australia

Projects in Australia, Canada and Ghana led the Top 10 lithium assays of the month ending Sept. 15, according to rankings by Mining Intelligence, part of The Northern Miner Group.  

Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) topped the table with drill results confirming wide mineralization at its Andover project in Western Australia. LiFT Power (CSE: LIFT) reported from its Yellowknife project in the Northwest Territories as wildfires forced evacuations and Atlantic Lithium (ASX: A11; LSE: ALL) advanced its Ewoyaa project in Ghana in partnership with Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ: PLL; ASX: PLL).  

Azure said on Aug. 21 that drilling at pegmatite AP0011 cut 167.7 metres grading 1.3% Li2O from 168.4 metres depth for a grade x width of 220 at the Andover project. Azure holds 60% of the project while the rest is held by Mark Creasy, who discovered what became the Bronzewing gold mine. 

The 108-sq.-km project is near the northwestern coast of Australia, about 1,500 km north of Perth. It lies 35 km southeast of the town of Karratha, population 23,000, and is linked to sealed roads, power and water.  

The drilling confirmed broad zones of high-grade lithium mineralization extend from surface to more than 400 metres vertically below surface over a strike length of 2,000 metres, the company said. Pegmatites AP0009, AP0011 and AP0012 have the potential to host substantial lithium resources, it said.  

Mineralization within AP0011 remains open down-dip and to the west where drilling is continuing to extend the mineralization, Azure said. It’s planning to issue Andover’s first resource estimate early next year followed by a preliminary economic assessment and scoping study by October. Previously, it published a conceptual exploration target of 100-240 million tonnes grading 1-1.5% Li2O.  

Yellowknife project

LiFT Power said on Aug. 21 that drill hole YLP0007 cut 60 metres grading 1.26% Li2O from 43 metres deep for a grade x width of 76 at the Yellowknife project. The company has drilled 117 holes into six different pegmatites on the site near the capital of the Northwest Territories. It evacuated Hidden Lake camp and paused drilling at the Big East pegmatite in August because of heavy wildfire smoke.  

Hole YLP0007 is part of testing along a 540 metre-long central segment of the Fi Southwest dyke where spodumene makes up 15-25% of the rock at surface, the company said. The holes targeted under historical trenches of up to 37 metres of 1.37% Li2O and have confirmed spodumene mineralization to 50 metres below surface, it said.  

“Fi Southwest continues to deliver high-grade spodumene over significant widths,” LiFT CEO Francis MacDonald said in the release. Hole YLP0007 extends the strike length of spodumene mineralization to 335 metres. The first drill holes into the Fi Main pegmatite have delivered some excellent intersects as well. Spodumene percentages are in line with mapping that has been completed on surface.” 

Ghana project

Atlantic Lithium said on Sept. 6 that drill hole GRC0961 returned 48 metres grading 1.31% Li2O from 137 metres down for a grade x width of 63 at the Ewoyaa project in Ghana.  

The drilling at the South-2 deposit is part of 18,500 metres of infill, extensional and exploration reverse-circulation drilling planned this year, the company said. It wants to convert mineralization from the inferred to indicated category. 

The project holds 3.5 million tonnes grading 1.37% Li2O in the measured category, 24.5 million tonnes at 1.25% Li2O in the indicated category and 7.4 million tonnes at 1.16% Li2O in the inferred category, according to a resource estimate released in February.  

Piedmont holds 22.5% and plans to acquire half of the project, which is about 120 km west of the capital, Accra. Ewoyaa has an after-tax net present value of US$1.5 billion at an 8% discount rate with free cash flow of US$2.4 billion from US$6.6 billion in revenue over the mine’s 12-year life, according to a feasibility study issued in June.  

The open-pit project would cost US$185 million to build and generate a 105% internal rate of return and a 19-month payback period. It would use modular dense media separation processing units to produce 2.4 million tonnes of lithium a year.