6 September 2023
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 (MAR) as in force in the United Kingdom pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service (RIS), this inside information will be in the public domain.
Andrada Mining Limited
("Andrada" or the "Company")
Initial Drill Results on ML133 ("Lithium Ridge")
Notable lithium intersections up to 2.13% Li₂O.
Andrada Mining Limited (AIM: ATM, OTCQB: ATMTF), an African technology metals mining company with a portfolio of mining and exploration assets in Namibia, is pleased to provide assay results for the first batch of Reverse Circulation ("RC") exploration drilling results of an initial scouting programme undertaken within the ML133 mining license area ("Lithium Ridge").
Building on the channel sampling programme, whose results highlighted the potential of the mineralised pegmatites, an exploration drilling programme ("the Programme") was implemented to investigate the continuation of selected lithium enriched pegmatites at depth. This announcement contains initial results received for 14 of the 24 holes drilled. The Programme indicates that the targeted pegmatites continue at depth and, these analytical results confirm the presence of significant lithium mineralisation within multiple pegmatites.
§ All drill holes intersected mineralised pegmatites.
§ Significant pegmatite intersections include:
o Drill hole ATNN 08:14m at 1.80% Li2O, 0.08% Sn and 70 ppm Ta from a depth of 8m to 22m.
- Including a notable lithium intersection of 11 m at 2.13% Li2O from 9m to 20m.
o Drill hole ATNN 14:17m at 1.29% Li2O, 0.09% Sn and 77 ppm Ta from a depth of 23m to 40m.
- Including a notable lithium intersection of 11 m at 1.78% Li2O from 23m to 34m.
o Drill hole ATNN 01:63m at 0.80% Li2O, 0.12% Sn and 66 ppm Ta from a depth of 17m to 80m.
- Including a notable lithium intersection of 35 m at 1.05% Li2O from 44m to 79m.
o Drill hole ATNN 02:27m at 1.24% Li2O, 0.14% Sn and 116 ppm Ta from a depth of 31m to 58m.
- Including a notable lithium intersection of 19 m at 1.50% Li2O from 33m to 52m.
§ This initial batch of drill results covers a strike distance of over 4 km.
"These initial results further highlight the mineral potential of our mining licenses and the Erongo region in general. We have found high-grade mineralisation within all our license areas over the last 12 months with indications that there is more to be found at depth.
This first batch of results confirms lithium mineralisation along a 4 km strike, and we anticipate that the second batch will show similar results as per the results from the channel samples over the remaining 2 km. These results indicate intersections at higher lithium grades than those recorded at Uis and are commensurate to similar hard-rock resources globally.
Andrada has already produced a saleable petalite concentrate on a pilot scale from Lithium Ridge suitable for the industrial and technical markets. With the commissioning of the lithium pilot plant at Uis Mine being finalised, we are evaluating various options to expedite lithium production."
The Lithium Ridge project is within the ML133 mining license area situated approximately 35km southeast of the Uis Mine along the D1903 road linking to the B2 highway. This license area is situated within the NaiNais - Kohero pegmatite belt and is the location of the former tin and tantalum concentrate producing TinTan mine.
This Programme comprised 24 RC drill holes at a total of 1900 m drilled, yielding approximately 800 samples for chemical analysis. The results of the first 14 holes comprising approximately 400 samples are reported in this announcement.
The Programme was undertaken to investigate the subsurface morphology and metal endowment of selected pegmatite bodies which contain elevated lithium values at surface. Since this Programme has been undertaken over an area the Company considers to be greenfield, the approach has been that of caution in evaluating the potential of each pegmatite. Due to the favourable results of the Programme, the Company is likely to implement additional drilling programmes with a view to defining a JORC compliant resource within this area in the future.
The results reported as "whole intersection" in Table 1 below, indicate a pegmatite intersection from the top to the bottom contact. Samples with RC chips indicating the presence of xenolith material have been included within the reported intersection. The intersections reported as "including" represent continuous higher-grade intervals within the total intersection of the selected pegmatites. Although all the drill holes were drilled at an angle of 60° (sixty degrees) from the horizontal as illustrated in Figure 2, the reported pegmatite intersections should still be considered to represent apparent width.
Table 1: Analytical results of the maiden RC drill programme executed on the Lithium Ridge project. The 'whole intersection' values comprise the weighted average for of the entire pegmatite intersection including xenoliths. The remaining intersections represent selected intervals within the pegmatites highlighting increased metal content.
Hole ID |
Intersection |
From/To (m) |
Width (Metres) |
Grades |
||
Li₂O (%) |
Sn (%) |
Ta (ppm) |
||||
ATNN 01 |
Whole Intersection |
17-80 |
63 |
0.80 |
0.12 |
66 |
Including |
44-79 |
35 |
1.05 |
0.12 |
79 |
|
ATNN 02 |
Whole Intersection |
31-58 |
27 |
1.24 |
0.14 |
116 |
Including |
33-52 |
19 |
1.50 |
0.16 |
113 |
|
Whole Intersection |
62-74 |
12 |
0.50 |
0.10 |
91 |
|
ATNN 03 |
Whole Intersection |
10-16 |
6 |
0.92 |
0.07 |
164 |
Including |
11-15 |
4 |
1.28 |
0.09 |
176 |
|
Whole Intersection |
27-30 |
3 |
1.02 |
0.13 |
42 |
|
ATNN 04 |
Whole Intersection |
21-32 |
11 |
0.75 |
0.16 |
63 |
Including |
24-29 |
5 |
1.34 |
0.19 |
66 |
|
ATNN 05 |
Whole Intersection |
10-26 |
16 |
1.18 |
0.16 |
54 |
Including |
13-24 |
11 |
1.42 |
0.17 |
54 |
|
Whole Intersection |
76-83 |
7 |
0.37 |
0.13 |
46 |
|
ATNN 06 |
Whole Intersection |
30-40 |
10 |
0.36 |
0.19 |
81 |
ATNN 07 |
Whole Intersection |
26-32 |
6 |
0.33 |
0.07 |
85 |
ATNN 08 |
Whole Intersection |
08-22 |
14 |
1.80 |
0.08 |
70 |
Including |
09-20 |
11 |
2.13 |
0.08 |
70 |
|
ATNN 10 |
Whole Intersection |
18-28 |
10 |
0.59 |
0.14 |
67 |
ATNN 11 |
Whole Intersection |
26-36 |
10 |
1.03 |
0.06 |
43 |
Including |
27-30 |
3 |
1.86 |
0.02 |
36 |
|
ATNN 12 |
Whole Intersection |
43-53 |
10 |
0.11 |
0.17 |
48 |
ATNN 13 |
Whole Intersection |
30-37 |
7 |
0.85 |
0.19 |
121 |
ATNN 14 |
Whole Intersection |
23-40 |
17 |
1.29 |
0.09 |
77 |
Including |
23-34 |
11 |
1.78 |
0.11 |
76 |
All reported holes were drilled by RC methodology at an inclination of 60° from the horizontal. Downhole surveys through magnetic deviation probe at 2 m intervals, were completed for each hole immediately after drilling and collar locations were surveyed using a differential GPS. Due to the undulating dip angle of the pegmatites, the intersections are assumed to be an indication of apparent thickness, which is greater than true thickness.
Other minor pegmatites identified in drill holes have not been reported, because they are not currently considered to be of economic significance. Each drill hole was geologically logged and sampled at 1 m intervals with the entire RC sample being dispatched to the laboratory for preparation. The sample analysis was undertaken by UIS Analytical Services, a certified independent laboratory in Namibia, using a peroxide fusion. ICP-OES analysis was utilised for major and minor elements whilst ICP-MS was utilised for the trace elements. No top cut was applied in calculating the weighted average grades for anomalously rich intersections.
Figure 1: Map displaying the localities of the reported holes, and the mapped surface exposure or pegmatites. Line A-A' indicates the area represented by the cross section in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2: Section line A-A' displaying a projection of the drill holes results in this announcement. Since there are no second intersections of each intrusive body, the morphology of the unit was extrapolated using mapped surface expressions. All holes were drilled at an inclination of 60° from the horizontal.
The technical data in this announcement has been reviewed by Professor Laurence Robb ("Prof. Robb"), who is a non-executive director of Andrada Mining. Prof. Robb has over 30 years of industry related exploration and mineral experience and is a Competent Person for the reporting of exploration results. He has reviewed both the technical disclosures in this release as well as the quality assurance protocols and results for this programme.
GPS |
Global Positioning System |
ICP-MS |
Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry |
ICP-OES |
Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry |
Li |
Symbol for Lithium |
Li → Li2O |
Metal to metal-oxide conversion factor of 2.153 |
Li2O |
Lithium oxide |
PPM |
Parts Per Million |
RC |
Reverse Circulation |
Sn |
Symbol for Tin |
Ta |
Symbol for Tantalum |
Andrada Mining Limited Anthony Viljoen, CEO Sakhile Ndlovu, Investor Relations |
+27 (11) 268 6555 investorrelations@andradamining.com
|
|
|
Nominated Adviser |
|
WH Ireland Limited Katy Mitchell |
+44 (0) 207 220 1666 |
|
|
Corporate Adviser and Joint Broker |
|
H&P Advisory Limited Andrew Chubb Jay Ashfield Matt Hasson |
+44 (0) 20 7907 8500 |
|
|
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited Ashton Clanfield Calum Stewart Varun Talwar |
+44 (0) 20 7710 7600 |
|
|
Tavistock Financial PR (United Kingdom) Jos Simson Catherine Drummond Adam Baynes |
+44 (0) 207 920 3150 andrada@tavistock.co.uk |
Andrada Mining Limited, formerly Afritin Mining Limited, is a London-listed technology metals mining company with a vision to create a portfolio of globally significant, conflict-free, production and exploration assets. The Company's flagship asset is the Uis Mine in Namibia, formerly the world's largest hard-rock open cast tin mine.
An exploration drilling programme is currently underway with the aim of expanding the tin resource over the fourteen additional, historically mined pegmatites, all of which occur within a 5 km radius of the current processing plant. The Company has set a mineral resource target of 200 Mt to be delineated within the next 5 years. The existing mine, together with substantial mineral resource potential, allows the Company to consider economies of scale.
Andrada is managed by a board of directors with extensive industry knowledge and a management team with extensive commercial and technical skills. Furthermore, the Company is committed to the sustainable development of its operations and the growth of its business. This is demonstrated by the manner in which the leadership team places significant emphasis on creating value for the wider community, investors, and other key stakeholders. Andrada has established an environmental, social and governance system which has been implemented at all levels of the Company and aligns with international standards.