By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK, May 3 — Namibian mining company Arcadia Minerals (AM7) has announced a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its Madube clay deposit, part of the Bitterwasser lithium-in-clay project. The MRE is for 40,375 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), with 13.7 tonnes at 553 parts per million (ppm) lithium in the Madube resource. This brings the overall resource for the Bitterwasser project to 327,284 tonnes of LCE.
AM7’s drilling work has shown a clear trend of increasing grades at depth, with holes ending at 900 ppm lithium. The company now plans to conduct cyclone testwork on Madube Pan samples to determine the potential for further grade increases, similar to the 28% increase seen in the Eden Pan zone.
The current MRE only covers two of the 14 known pans in the Bitterwasser Pan district. AM7 aims to reach an overall MRE of 500,000 tonnes LCE for the area through further exploration work. “Given that the tenor of mineralisation at Madube is similar to that of the Eden Pan, we are confident that we would be able to increase the overall Bitterwasser lithium-in-clay mineral resource to greater than 500,000 tonnes of LCE from other pans in the same geological environment,” said AM7 CEO Philip le Roux.
The company plans to conduct further diamond core drilling to confirm the geometry, stratigraphy, grade, and controls of the mineralisation in the Lower Clays unit of its Madube Pan. It will also investigate the potential for the lateral continuation of the pan sediments and survey Madube borehole collars to increase its MRE from an inferred to an indicated resource.
At the time of writing, AM7 shares were trading at 20 cents at 11:43 am AEST. – Namibia Daily News
