By Business Reporter – Tuesday 18 August 2020
HARARE (Mining Index) – AMID the Covid-19 pandemic, exploration company Mirrorplex Private Limited is gearing up to drill its wholly owned Lithium project in Bindura.
Mirrorplex revealed this morning preparations were “well advanced” to begin drilling at Bindura, which is believed to be the highest grade undeveloped lithium project in Zimbabwe.
Drill rig mobilisation to site is scheduled for end of August with in-house team busy preparing the drill pads, Mirrorplex ‘s work plan for the project.
Additionally, the camp has been re-established previous mapping and surface rock sampling have shown at least five large areas containing extensive lithium mineralisation at surface from multiple pegmatite dyke outcrops exist across the entire project.
“With the significant support shown by investors and directors through the recent capital raising, the Mirrorplex team has moved quickly towards the commencement of drilling at Bindura.”
“The 2,000m infill drill program is focused on improving resource confidence and upgrading resources to inferred resource status,” Mirrorplex co -founding managing director Nyasha Chidoh said.
Chidoh added that previous drilling had confirmed the intersection of “exceptional” grades of mineralisation during a drilling and rock sampling campaign at the high-priority Bonnyvale prospect, within the Bindura lithium project in northern Zimbabwe.
The campaign was designed to drill and collect sections of continuous, unbiased samples across the Bonnyvale pegmatites as part of Mirrorplex due diligence assessment of the project’s lithium grade.
Chidoh said the 287-metre reverse circulation program returned significant intersections of high-grade lithium oxide within petalite and spodumene-rich zones continuing at depth below surface outcrops and old workings. Best results were 8m at 3.08% lithium oxide from 1m, including 5m at 4.38% lithium oxide from 2m.
Other assays returned were 32m at 1.42% lithium oxide from 0m including 12m at 2.45% lithium oxide from 18m, and 5m at 3.83% lithium oxide from 19m.
“This program was very successful in intersecting thick zones of high-grade mineralisation to at least 30m below surface and has achieved everything it was designed to do,”
“It is worth remembering that the drilling targeted a tiny portion of one pegmatite in the large Bonnyvale field, and that at least four other pegmatite prospects showing high-grade lithium mineralisation across broad areas are now to be drill tested,” said Chidoh.
Mirrorplex anticipated this would again be the outcome from the upcoming drilling program.
Pegmatite dyke region
The Bindura project acreage comprises various pegmatite dykes including Bonnyvale, the northerly-striking Loch Ness suite (1a, 1b, IV), Ronspur (Mkanga) and several other unnamed dykes in the Hereford area.
The cumulative strike length of dykes identified to date is approximately 3km, with the widest ranging up to 250m in width.
Some of the dykes were exploited in the 1960s for beryl, cassiterite and tantalum mineralisation.
Spodumene mineralisation is reported to be present in the central portion of Loch Ness IV, occurring as fine-grained prismatic aggregates interspersed with quartz, albite-oligoclase and accessory beryl, apatite and columbite-tantalite.
According to historical records, a pegmatite to the east of Ronspur (Mkanga) contains a “substantial” tonnage of spodumene, making it an area of high interest for Mirrorplex’s lithium exploration activities. ENDS// www.miningndex.co.zw
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