Staff Writer
Andrada Mining’s chief executive officer, Anthony Viljoen has revealed that the latest drilling results from the company’s Lithium Ridge project show that the company is continuing to uncover the potential of the licence.
Viljoen said multiple pegmatites from the latest drilling programme returned lithium intersections exceeding 1.5% lithium oxide, while newly identified pegmatites outside the main mineralised trend also contain substantial lithium mineralisation.
“This fifth batch of results demonstrates the presence of high-grade intersections confirming that we are still uncovering the full potential of the Lithium Ridge licence,” Viljoen said.
The results are the fifth batch of exploration drilling results released by Andrada for the project.
Among the strongest results was drill hole LRD045, which recorded 34.9 metres grading 1.02% lithium oxide from a depth of 184.42 metres. This included a 6.22-metre section grading 1.67%.
Drill hole LRD060 recorded 10.66 metres grading 1.13% lithium oxide from 0.9 metres below the surface, including 4.79 metres at 2.04%.
LRD042 recorded 9.03 metres grading 1.64%, including 5.44 metres at 1.84%, while LRD066 returned 11.35 metres grading 1.16%, including 4.64 metres at 1.79%.
Andrada said the drilling also confirmed the presence of tin and tantalum alongside the lithium.
Hole LRD061 returned a 0.25-metre section containing 1.03% tin and 227 parts per million of tantalum, while LRD074 recorded 0.95 metres grading 0.57% tin.
Hole LRD045 also returned a 0.36-metre section containing 604 parts per million of tantalum.
The company said holes LRD064, LRD066 and LRD072 had confirmed high-grade mineralisation in a newly identified pegmatite outside the main Lithium Ridge trend.
Viljoen said the results showed that the newly identified pegmatites beyond the main mineralised trend contained substantial lithium mineralisation, highlighting further exploration potential across the licence.
Andrada is advancing Lithium Ridge through an earn-in partnership with SQM International, a major global lithium producer.
The company said the presence of lithium, tin and tantalum could potentially allow the project to generate revenue from several commodities.
However, it said further processing tests and economic assessments would be required to determine the project’s potential economics.
