Askari Metals’ mapping and sampling at the Kestrel target within its Uis project in Namibia have revealed high-grade spodumene, a lithium mineral, with rock chips assaying up to 3.06 percent lithium oxide.
Out of the 32 samples taken from Kestrel, ten exhibited lithium grades exceeding 1 percent lithium oxide. The top five samples assayed at 3.06, 2.97, 2.91, 2.88, and 2.28 percent, respectively.
Management reports that these high-grade lithium results are supported by other strong lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite fertility indicators. Notable results include 0.38, 0.18, and 0.12 percent tin dioxide and tantalum pentoxide values of 672, 615, 346, 300, and 288 parts per million.
Askari’s mineral zonation mapping and multi-element geochemical plots effectively distinguish the Kestrel lithium-bearing pegmatite from tantalum-mineralised pegmatites, as well as from barren pegmatites and granites.
Management states that all their work to date indicates Kestrel contains a significant pegmatite body up to 30 meters wide, with a strike length of more than 1.4 kilometers, remaining open at both ends, laterally and to depth.
The results are highly encouraging, confirming Kestrel as a sizable pegmatite displaying high-grade lithium mineralisation. The high-grade rock chip assays, visually observed zonation textures, and elemental ratio plots confirm Kestrel is a highly fractionated, fertile, LCT-type pegmatite.
Askari Metals’ Chief Exploration and Project Manager (Africa), Cliff Fitzhenry, added that Kestrel will be a priority target in the upcoming phase one trenching campaign. The company will also evaluate other targets identified in the licence area, planning to drill high-confidence targets later in the year.
The Kestrel target is located near the northern boundary of Askari’s southern licence area, encompassing three southward extensions of four significant northeast-striking pegmatite trends within an overall “corridor of interest.” These trends contain multiple individual pegmatites of varying dimensions, mapped over a total strike distance of about 35 kilometers, with three extending beyond the tenement pair’s northern and southern boundaries. The fourth, smaller pegmatite trend lies partially within the southern licence and extends beyond its eastern and southern boundaries.
Importantly, the largest and longest pegmatite trend expands to about 7 kilometers wide at its northernmost extremity, outside Askari’s northernmost boundary. This expanded part of the trend includes Andrada Mining’s Uis project, a lithium-tin-tantalum mining operation with a gross estimated mineral resource in its main V1V2 pegmatite of 81 million tonnes grading 0.73 percent lithium oxide, 0.15 percent tin, and 86ppm tantalum. The estimated resource content includes 1.45 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, 120,000 tonnes of elemental tin, and 69,600 tonnes of elemental tantalum. Andrada has mapped over 180 pegmatites within 5 kilometers of its processing plant.
Kestrel is Askari’s prime target in the southern licence area. Exploration mapping has outlined the surface exposure of the pegmatite area along a strike of at least 1.4 kilometers, up to about 1.5 kilometers. The entire cluster of Kestrel’s multiple pegmatites has been mapped to over 450 meters wide at its greatest dimension. Management reports that hyperspectral scanning is effective in identifying “blind” pegmatites, including those not previously exploited by local artisanal-scale mining, and that cross-trenching often reveals their true scale.
Fitzhenry stated that the company continues to demonstrate that its Uis lithium project can deliver significant pegmatites of good size and high grade. The recent phase-1 trenching program in the northern licence has shown that the method is effective and delivers high-confidence targets that will meet the critical drill bit test this year.
Given the similarity of Kestrel mineralisation to the more advanced targets in the northern licence, and Kestrel’s position within the “corridor of interest” alongside demonstrably fertile lithium pegmatites extending into a major operational LCT mining venture, Askari’s Uis project appears to have strong potential.
