Prospect completes Phase 2 of its diamond drilling programme
PROSPECT Resources, which is developing the Step Aside lithium project in Goromonzi District in Mashonaland East Province, has completed Phase 2 of its diamond drilling programme.
The project is situated 8km north of the Arcadia Lithium Mine and comprises an estimated 100 hectares on the Harare greenstone belt.
Prospect Resources, which owned 87 percent stake in the Arcadia Lithium project, sold its stake to a Chinese-owned Huayou International Mining (Hong Kong) Limited, with the transaction comprising a cash consideration of about US$377,8 million.
In a statement released this week, Prospect said it was pleased to announce that the Phase 2 diamond drilling programme at Step Aside has been completed.
“The Phase 2 programme has built on the success of the Phase 1 campaign by delivering stepout drilling targeted at strike and dip extensions of the key identified pegmatite bodies at Step Aside, the so-called “Colga A”, “B”, “C” “D”,” E” and “F” pegmatites.
“The largest pegmatite, D, is interpreted to strike over at least 120 metres at surface and is open to the south and down dip.
“The Phase 2 programme comprised 20 diamond core drill holes for 2 221,5 metres of drilling, and was delivered on time and to budget,” it said.
The mining group said all assays are expected to be returned, and updated geological interpretations completed, during this quarter.
The lithium potential of the Step Aside area has been confirmed by positive historical regional stream and spoil sample geochemistry results.
Six mineralised pegmatites have been mapped on the eastern side of the tenement, within a meta-dolerite host rock.
Last year, Prospect through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Promin Resource Holdings, acquired the high grade lithium deposit, Step Aside Mine.
Meanwhile, following a rock chip sampling programme to investigate the potential prospectivity of the Chishanya Carbonatite Project (Chishanya) for economic rare earth element concentrations, Prospect has indicated that it has no plans to undertake any further exploration activities on that project.
In 2018, Prospect had announced the commencement of exploration at its Chishanya carbonatite project in southeastern Zimbabwe.
Then in August 2021, the company announced it had identified significant-sized rare earth elements (REE) anomalies at the project.
REE refers to a group of 17 chemically similar elements, including the 15 elements in the Lanthanide series, and also scandium and yttrium because of their similar properties.
However, the company has now announced that its knowledge gained at Chishanya has assisted the team in understanding the regional geology and Prospect is evaluating other early-stage projects in Zimbabwe for their prospectivity for rare earth elements.
The Prospect exploration team is said to be continuing to develop a pipeline of prospective battery mineral targets both locally and within the region.
-ebusinessweekly
