Andover is one of the leading lithium exploration projects globally. Pic via Getty Images.
Mining
If it wasn’t already clear before, Azure’s latest drill results that include a chart topping 209.4m intersection grading 1.42% Li2O ought to firmly establish its Andover project as a leading lithium exploration play.
While the company has already seen multiple +100m (and high-grade) lithium intersections at the project it shares with legendary prospector Mark Creasy’s Creasy Group, the latest results simply blow them out of the water.
The top assay intersected in hole ANRD00171 from a down-hole depth of 219m includes higher grade zones of 126.2m at 1.72% Li2O from 219m and 19.7m at 1.54% Li2O from 401.6m while hole ANDD0228 returned a still respectable 183.1m intersection at 1.25% Li2O from 170.5m with several higher grade zones.
And if that wasn’t enough to whet your appetite, Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) is more than happy to inform you that lithium mineralisation at Andover isn’t just thick down-hole, it is also far-reaching on the horizontal plane with mineralisation now extending for more than 1,800m along strike.
To top it off, the very broad mineralised zone in the AP0011 pegmatite has now been confirmed over a continuous strike length of 700m-800m, which remains open along strike to the west, and to vertical depths of more than 400m.
All of these encouraging intercepts hint at Andover hosting some pretty significant lithium mineralisation with Azure’s newly minted Exploration Target of between 100Mt and 240Mt grading 1% to 1.5% Li2O for Target Areas 1, 2, and 3 providing some insight into just how lithium the company thinks it might have.
While Exploration Targets are conceptual and no replacement for a mineral resource, which requires a greater level of exploration to achieve the level of certainty required, they do provide a useful idea of what might be present.
Unsurprisingly, Target Area 1 – where the bulk of exploration has been carried out to date – also hosts the largest Exploration Target of 55Mt to 105Mt grading between 1% and 1.5% Li2O.
It includes the wireframed size of the AP011 pegmatite-hosted mineralisation as defined by the drilling, as well as the potential size of pegmatites that have been mapped and sampled at the surface, with limited or no drilling to date.
And there’s potential for further growth as the Exploration Target covers just a subset of the Andover pegmatite swarm, which extends over 9km east to west and up to 5km from the north to south.
“These broad, high-grade intercepts firmly entrench Andover amongst the best lithium exploration projects globally,” managing director Tony Rovira said.
“Encouragingly, the results suggest the mineralisation remains open along strike and to depth, providing Azure with the potential to produce similar, if not better, lithium intersections of such scale and tenor in future drilling.
“The Andover project is an exceptional discovery given the abundance of outcropping mineralised pegmatites and substantial widths of high-grade mineralisation intersected in the drilling.
“With multiple drill rigs on site testing the numerous pegmatite zones, we are only beginning to realise the full scale of the project’s potential.”
While the latest results are impressive, it is worth noting that there has been no shortage of impressive results coming out of exploration at Andover, results that clearly indicate that lithium mineralisation is present throughout the targeted area to date.
That has positive implications for future exploration across the rest of the Andover pegmatite swarm.
Several hundred outcropping pegmatites have been identified in this area from extensive surface sampling and mapping with many containing high lithium grades.
Amidst this rich potential, Azure has drilled 40 diamond holes totalling 13,765m and 83 reverse circulation holes totalling 16,369m to date with current drilling testing along the +2,000m strike extent of the corridor containing the AP0009, AP0010, AP0011, AP0012 and AP0014 pegmatites in Target Area 1.
The company has also received heritage and environmental approvals for drilling in two more high priority pegmatite-rich corridors – Target Area 2 and Target Area 3, and has been granted Exploration Licence (EL) E47/4701, taking Andover’s total project area of up to 108km2.
Diamond drilling testing the AP0015, AP0016 and AP0017 pegmatites in Target Area 2 is expected to begin next week.
This article was developed in collaboration with Azure Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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