ASX grills AVZ after consultant tweets pictures of lithium drill cores

AVZ Minerals has had to explain to the ASX why pictures of drill core from its Congo lithium project appeared on Twitter before results of recent drilling had been announced to the market.

The market darling (ASX:AVZ) received a query from the bourse in late March after its share price jumped 8.5 per cent.

Klaus Eckhof’s AVZ is working on a 20,000m drilling program at Manono in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with an initial focus on a pegmatite site known as Roche Dure.

AVZ originally told the ASX the pictures were of previously released drill results. But in a follow-up ASX announcement, AVZ today conceded some the cores shown on Twitter posts were from holes that had not yet been reported to the market.

The tweets were posted on March 28 by Michael Langford, who is an executive director of Singapore-based consultant Airguide — which is engaged as an advisor to AVZ Minerals.

AVZ’s share price slipped nearly 13 per cent to 22.2c by 12.40pm AEST.

“Although the company does not consider that the photos from the Twitter posts contain material information, the company has since released an announcement,” AVZ said in its amended response to the ASX.

Drilling has confirmed thickness of the Roche Dure pegmatite, with intersections of 313.88m, 276.77m, 284.30m and 273.20m, respectively, of pegmatite. Four drill rigs are now operational and a fifth rig is enroute.

AVZ says all holes contain a high proportion of spodumene within the pegmatite.

Pegmatites are rocks formed from lava or magma that are the primary source of lithium. Spodumene is the main lithium bearing mineral mined from most hard rock lithium mines around the world.

Mr Eckhof has described Manono as hosting one of the “longest pegmatite intercepts ever reported”.

Mr Langford’s tweets appear to have been removed.

Here are some other tweets Mr Langford posted on the same day:

> $AVZ Manono Drilling crews:

Met all the experienced drilling crews operational on site. Bulldozer clearing the next two pads infront of each of the 4 rigs to enable the quick demob/mob to each new pad.

Sites are dry, easy to move around with easy access to water for drilling. pic.twitter.com/rjeDFiC5dW

— Michael Langford (@ML_SuperNinja) March 28, 2018

> Pegmatite & more Pegmatite, it is all so obvious @ $AVZ's Manono #Lithium asset:

Outcopping pegmatite shown at surface. Zoom in you can see the weathered crystals of spodumene.

I have never seen another lithium project where the evidence is so obvious everywhere you look. pic.twitter.com/JLrYhB1jw3

— Michael Langford (@ML_SuperNinja) March 30, 2018