Arcadia Minerals (ASX:AM7) reports it has begun a regional scale geophysical survey looking for possible lithium-rich brine targets at the Bitterwasser Lithium Brines Project, located in Namibia.
The survey is aimed at detecting potential brine deposits at depth on a regional scale, and to identify sub-basins and total basin depths for lithium enriched brine pools, as well as targets associated with tectonic structures containing hydrothermal activity at the project.
Due to the size of the Bitterwasser Basin and the potential of identifying numerous multiple targets, the survey will be conducted in parts commencing from the best known sections of the licences.
Due to the size of the Bitterwasser Basin and the potential of identifying numerous multiple targets, the survey will be conducted in parts commencing from the best known sections of the licences
Depending on the results attained during the survey, the coverage and location of the line of kilometres may change.
Arcadia also notes a follow-up survey will be completed in a second phase if required, and if the survey is successful, a drilling program will be planned over the best targets.
The prospective electrical EC anomaly below the Eden Pan where the Bitterwasser Clay Mineral Resource is situated, is ‘strongly’ indicative of brine activity at a depth of approximately 50m, but remains to be tested.
The anomaly has confirmed that an Electro Conductive survey method is an efficient geological tool to identify brine pools for follow-up target drilling.
It is expected that a minimum of 2,000 line-kms will be flown and that the survey will be able to penetrate to a depth of 300m, which the company says is within the reach of the inferred basement of the Bitterwasser Half-Graben basin.
The Bitterwasser Project comprises 4 exploration licences (EPLs 7614, 8101, 8102 and 8103), and it is situated in the western part of the Kalahari Desert.
The area is characterised by an expanse of Karoo geology, covered by red Kalahari sand dunes and ‘well developed’ salt pans.
Arcadia reports work completed to date has been conducted on the Bitterwasser pan complex situated on the farms between the towns of Kalkrand and Hoachans in the Hardap region of central Namibia.
The Bitterwasser salt pan complex consists of several individual lithium-potassium-boron bearing clay substrate salt pans, and is associated with the depositional development of the western portions of the greater Kalahari basin.
The salt pan is close to the inferred source of mineralisation, which is the Brukkaros volcanic field and elevated groundwater temperatures as high as 39ºC have been reported from water-supply boreholes, indicating the presence of a deep-seated geothermal heat source and mineralisation provenance.
The thickness of the sedimentary packages which make up the Bitterwasser salt pans range from 30m to over 100m thick and are of sufficient size or porosity to accommodate ‘substantial’ brine aquifers.
Arcadia is a Namibia-focused ‘diversified’ metals exploration company based in Guernsey.
The company explores for a suite of gold and ‘new-era’ metals including lithium, tantalum, palladium, nickel and copper, and its strategy is to bring the Swanson Project into production to use generated cash flow to drive exploration and development at other exploration assets held by Arcadia.
