Tyranna (ASX:TYX) reports it has received ‘outstanding’ results from the Namibe Lithium Project in Angola, with the majority of samples (46) collected to assess visible lithium mineralisation
The company reports that of these samples, the range of grade was 0.10% – 9.74% Li2O, averaging 3.21% Li2O, and 25 of the samples contained spodumene. Some 13 spodumene-bearing samples also comprised a mixture of minerals, averaging 3.40% Li2O.
These results confirm that high quality lithium mineralisation is present within the Namibe Lithium Project with sufficient abundance to warrant continued investigation of the rest of the pegmatite field, which is greatly underexplored.
Tyranna reports that the company will now start its maiden drilling campaign in the next quarter.
Addressing the results, Tyranna Executive Director Paul Williams commented: “We are very excited by these results which provide further encouragement and confirmation that the Namibe Lithium Project contains substantial high grade spodumene mineralisation and justifies Tyranna’s acquisition of what is proving to be a valuable project.
“We have defined a larger drill target area at the site known as 21n, and these results in particular provide further confidence in designing our maiden drilling program”
We have defined a larger drill target area at the site known as 21n, and these results in particular provide further confidence in designing our maiden drilling program.
We are looking forward to the next phase of exploration to test these areas at depth.”
A key objective of the recently completed fieldwork was a more in-depth investigation of the currently known sites of lithium mineralisation, focussing upon sites 19a, 19b, 21g, 21k and 21n.
While travelling to reach site 21g, a small beryl-rich pegmatite was seen and sampled, and this site has been allocated site code 22a.
The presence of lithium phosphate minerals at all the sites sampled, except for site 19b where it has not yet been observed but is expected to be present, suggests a compositional link between the pegmatites that is significant.
Tyranna reports that the results from Site 19a are important because they confirm that lithium enrichment is widely distributed in this large pegmatite.
Given the occurrence of triphylite-lithiophilite at both Site 21n, which contains spodumene, and site 19a, it is possible that spodumene may occur in an unexposed part of site 19a.
Further investigation of the possibility of an unexposed spodumene-bearing zone at Site 19a is warranted.
Although site 21n has the most abundant occurrences of lithium minerals known to-date within the project area, the company notes that more than 95% of the pegmatites in the project area remain to be inspected and sampled.
Site 21n is comprised of a swarm of close-spaced pegmatite dykes and it was apparent that lithium minerals were present at numerous locations, so detailed sampling was completed to establish the abundance and grade of the lithium mineralisation.
Results confirmed that ‘high-grade’ lithium mineralisation is present across a substantial area of site 21n.
Although spodumene is the dominant lithium mineral at site 21n, several other lithium minerals are also present. Lithium iron manganese phosphate occurs in the wall zone of many of the pegmatites, but the interior zones are more important, containing spodumene and other lithium minerals, associated with enrichment of other elements.
