Andrada reports increased mineral resource estimate of 81 million tonnes at Uis mine

 


The updated total mineral resource estimate for Andrada Mining Uis mine in Namibia, including mining depletion, has increased to 81 million tonnes from 72 million tonnes in 2019.

Andrada Mining Limited announced the updated mineral resource for lithium, tin, tantalum and rubidium on Jan. 6.


The company, formerly known as Afritin, says an exploration drilling programme to upgrade the resource classification for lithium and tantalum over the V1/V2 deposit to align with the existing classification for tin started in Jan. 2022.


According to the results, the average lithium grade has increased to 0.73% from 0.63% declared in 2019. The contained total lithium oxide tonnes have increased by 30% to 587 000 tonnes. This gives a lithium carbonate equivalent of 1.45 million tonnes, with the measured and indicated lithium resources rising by 47% to 38 million tonnes.


The average tin grade increased to 0.15% from a previous average of 0.134%, resulting in contained tin metal content of 120 000 tonnes.


The maiden resource was declared for rubidium with a total of 109 400 tonnes at an average grade of 0.14%.


Andrada chief executive officer Anthony Viljoen said the results confirm that Uis is a globally significant lithium and tin resource that remains open at depth and is one of over 180 mineralised pegmatites within 5km of the Uis processing facility. 


Viljoen also said the drilling programme had exceeded expectations, delivered higher grades, and increased the overall tonnage by 13% compared to the previous resource estimate from 2019 and 30% more contained lithium. 


"This mineral resource estimate has been delivered ahead of our lithium pilot plant commissioning, which is due to come online in Q2 2023 and is an important step to realise the additional lithium and tantalum revenue streams alongside our tin production," he added. 


According to Viljoen, the new resource increases the economics for Andrada and forms the basis for the next phase of expansion and growth for the Uis mine.


"The next exploration phase will investigate the other proximal pegmatites at Uis with the end goal of repeating this process and ultimately expanding the resource at Uis to achieve the exploration target of 200 million tonnes," he said.

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