Zimbabwe lithium discovery excites UK miner

UNITED KINGDOM-BASED Galileo Resources says the lithium discovery at Kamativi has given it much "encouragement and provided the impetus" to increase drilling.
The firm has interests in Zimbabwe's Bulawayo Gold Projects and Kamativi Lithium Project.

"Following our exciting discovery, we thought it prudent and informative to advise the market and shareholders of the underlying history and our strategy towards the Kamativi lithium and tin project," Galileo chairperson and CEO Colin Bird said in a shareholder update.

"This initially reported lithium discovery has given us much encouragement and provided the impetus to increase the allocation of drilling metres to allow for definition drilling of the mineralisation.

He added: "This demonstrates that our team has the ability to discover and thereafter implement protocols and regimes consistent with best practice.

"We look forward to presenting further results in accordance with the aforementioned protocols as the project evolves and we will keep shareholders abreast of any material change should it arise".

Exploration, according to Galileo, is guided by a wealth of external research underpinned by current work completed by CSA Global Consultants (CSA) on behalf of the company.

CSA concluded that "the laboratory data is of high quality and has adequate detection limits for all elements and the suite of elements analysed is fit for purpose".

The lithium minerals identified at the Kamativi Mine include spodumene, petalite and amblygonite.

Late-stage pegmatites in the Kamativi formation hosting this mineralisation, pass through the western and eastern parts of the Galileo licence and the discovery of extensive lithium soil anomalies based on accredited independent assays may indicate the presence of some or all these lithium minerals in pegmatites delineated within the Galileo licence, the company said.

To date, six holes have been drilled.

"Core recoveries are good and drilling is producing high quality core that can be logged, split and sampled," the company said.

Galileo has taken samples of recent drill cores and had these analysed for lithium at Performance Laboratories Zimbabwe Limited, with insertion of certified reference material to check on the accuracy of the results.

Based on limited work to date, the laboratory results are considered satisfactory, it noted. Galileo's Kamativi licence covers an area of 520 square kilometres, and is located adjacent to Kamativi Mine, a tin operation which collapsed over a decade ago.

Zimbabwe possesses Africa's largest lithium reserves but the resource has remained largely untapped due to lack of investment.

Lithium has become a vital raw material required in the transition to a green economy.

Lithium-ion batteries are commonly utilised in EV (electrical vehicle) manufacturing and in electric devices or solar panels to store excess solar energy.

There are around eight different lithium exploration and mining projects at different developmental stages in the country.

These include Arcadia Lithium Mine, Sabi Star Lithium, Bikita Mines, Zulu Lithium Project, Step Aside Lithium Project, Mirrorplex Lithium Project, Kamativi Lithium Project and Mutoko Lithium Private Limited.