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Ironridge Resources has a diverse portfolio of metals across West Africa and Australia

Last updated: 05:23 31 Dec 2018 EST, First published: 06:23 17 Jan 2018 EST

lithium in periodic table
Ironridge is taking a commanding position in West African lithium

Ironridge Resources Limited (LON:IRR) has a diverse portfolio of assets in West Africa and Australia.

The company has termed these as “frontier assets” and certainly with its operations in Chad and Gabon, Ironridge is operating in some of the most underexplored of global jurisdictions. Ghana and Ivory Coast will be more familiar destinations to mining company investors, although both are better known for their gold than their lithium.

Good progress on the Ghanaian lithium portfolio

In January 2018, Ironridge added to its lithium holdings in Ghana, after signing a deal with local Ghanaian company Joy Transporters to secure an additional 318km2 of highly prospective, hard-rock lithium pegmatite tenure. With this deal, the company really began to build scale in West Africa. 

READ: Ironridge Resources starts trench work at Dorothe in Chad

The combined land package in Ghana now totals over 645km2 of highly prospective granted and under application lithium pegmatite tenure, including the advanced Ewoyaa and Abonku prospects, and re-discovered historic Egyasimanku Hill lithium, which contains a historic resource of 1.48mln tonnes at 1.66% Li2O.

Ongoing drilling at Ewoyaa has already hit multiple intersections of pegmatite, and further RC drilling was initiated in December 2018. Meanwhile, at nearby Abonko, RC drilling is also underway. It's expected that both RC programmes will give way to the diamond drillbit sometime in the New Year.

Highly prospective iron ore ground in Gabon

In Gabon, Ironridge has two province-scale iron ore projects. Tchibanga is located in south-western Gabon, in the Nyanga Province, within 10-60km of the Atlantic coastline. 

Belinga Sud is located in the northeast of Gabon in the Ogooue-Ivindo Province, approximately 400 kilometres east of the capital city of Libreville. The licence lies between one of the world's largest untapped reserves of iron ore and the route of the Trans Gabonese railway, which currently carries manganese ore and timber from Franceville to the Port of Owendo in Libreville.

Golden opportunity in Chad

Ironridge has access to 1,000km2 of ground highly prospective for gold and other mineral projects in Chad, Central Africa. The Dorothe, Echbara, Am Ouchar, Nabagay and Ade licenses host multiple, large-scale gold projects. 

Initial trenching results at Dorothe has defined significant gold mineralised quartz veining over a confirmed 1km strike at an average of two metres and up to five metres true width across multiple stacked vein zones over a 250m wide zone. 

Extensive early-stage exploration upside in Cote D’Ivoire

In Cote D’Ivoire, Ironridge has access rights to highly prospective gold mineralised structures and pegmatite occurrences covering a combined 3,110km2 and 400km2 area respectively. The projects are well located within access of an extensive bitumen road network and along strike from multi-million-ounce gold projects and mines.

Soil sampling and trenching have recently taken place on the Cote D'Ivoire licenses, and auger drilling is now underway. 

Sampling from Monogorilby bauxite project provides grounds for encouragement

Ironridge’s Monogorilby project in Australia is prospective for province-scale titanium and bauxite, and already boasts an initial maiden resource of 54.9mln tonnes of premium DSO bauxite.

Monogorilby is located in central Queensland, within a short trucking distance of the rail system leading north to the Port of Bundaberg. It is also located within close proximity of the active Queensland Rail network heading south towards the Port of Brisbane.

Recent sampling from the ground around 25 kilometres from the existing resource has provided encouraging rock chip samples and revealed two new firm targets.

May Queen provides gold, Quaggy provides platinum and upside from other metals

May Queen is located within the Monogorilby license package and is highly prospective for gold. Historic drilling completed during the 1980s intersected multiple high-grade gold intervals including two metres at 73.4 grams per tonne gold.

Meanwhile, Quaggy contains highly anomalous platinum, palladium, nickel, cobalt and copper exploration targets.

 

 

Atlantic Lithium set to hit several milestones at Ewoyaa

Atlantic Lithium Ltd (AIM:ALL, OTCQX:ALLIF, ASX:A11) head of business development and chief geologist Len Kolff sits down with Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to recap the mining lease granted for the Ewoyaa Lithium Project in Ghana and what this means for the company. The lease has...

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