AVZ Minerals Ltd (ASX:AVZ) (OTCMKTS:AZZVF) (FRA:3A2) has received more strong results from mineral resource drilling at Manono Lithium and Tin Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including 180 metres at 1.80% lithium and 1,119 parts per million tin from 2 metres.
Drilling from the last three of the nine planned diamond drill holes at Roche Dore has confirmed further high-grade lithium and tin mineralisation directly beneath the historic pit floor.
Other major intersections included 245.15 metres at 1.73% lithium and 926 ppm tin from 11.45 metres and 218.6 metres at 1.69% lithium and 1,152 ppm tin from 6.4 metres.
New estimate underway
With the completion of this pit floor drilling at Roche Dure and the receipt of all outstanding assays, a new resource estimate is underway to update the previous May 2019 mineral resources.
The new results will enable AVZ to optimise the mine design, generate new ore reserves and revisit the DFS results.
AVZ will also assess the potential for a higher-grade core that could feed the proposed plant in its early years of operation and shorten the pay-back period.
“Generating new ore reserves”
AVZ managing director Nigel Ferguson said: “The final assay results from these last three of the nine planned drill holes on the Roche Dure pit floor again show strong lithium mineralisation from the pit floor surface.
“Now these assays have been reported they will be merged with our current database and we will re-run the geological resource model to reclassify that portion of the pit floor which was previously modelled as waste due to the lack of drilling information.
“Following on from the geology remodelling and coupled with the improvements to the plant design parameters, we will then check the previous mine design against the updated model to optimise the mine design, generate new ore reserves and revisit the DFS results.”
Locations of drill holes MO20DD007, MO21DD001 and MO21DD008.
“Potential for high-grade feedstock”
The company is confident that further investigation could lead to the discover of large tonnages of high-grade feedstock to feed the plant at the Monono Project.
Ferguson said: “Additionally, drilling also reported higher grade portions developing within the northern portions of the orebody, and that these may even coalesce both up dip and along strike.”
“This may present as the start of a much higher-grade core which will need further investigation to determine the possibility of finding more significant tonnages of high-grade feedstock, apart from those at Carriere de L’Este, that could feed the plant in its early years of operation to shorten the pay-back period.”
AVZ's market cap stands at approximately A$552.2 million while shares today have been up as much as 3% to A$0.195.