Birimian Limited (ASX: BGS) has identified extensions to the pegmatite zone at its Goulamina lithium project in the West African country of Mali, with the company’s chief executive officer Greg Walker stating the results were “very encouraging”.
To-date, Birimian has completed 60% of its planned drilling program at Goulamina, with the program due to wrap up in the next week or so.
The campaign has identified a 150-200m wide and 1km long pegmatite rich zone at the Yando prospect.
Birimian believes the pegmatite zone corresponds with previously auger-defined anomalies at prospects within the project including Yando, Danaya and Sabali.
The identified pegmatite zone at Yando is similar to the shallow auger holes that returned elevated lithium values.
According to the company, this correspondence means the auger holes are a “reliable indicator of the presence of spodumene-bearing pegmatite at depth.”
Almost 3,000 samples were submitted to a laboratory in Mali’s capital Bamako for analysis. The first results are expected in two-weeks with final analysis from the complete campaign due in mid-December.
The Goulamina project area includes 295 square kilometres of prospective landholding about 150km by road from Bamako.
A scoping study was published in January this year that revealed to project could be commercially viable and a pre-feasibility study was immediately started and completed early last month.
The pre-feasibility study projects a mine life up to 14 years, with an estimated operating cashflow between US$575.8 million and US$2.59 billion depending on the operating scenario.
The project has a current resource estimate of 32.9 million tonnes grading 1.37% lithium oxide for 451,000 tonnes of contained lithium oxide.
Under this latest drilling campaign, Birimian is hoping to upgrade the resource, which it believes will boost the project’s value and assist with selecting the best development strategy.
In addition to Goulamina, Birimian is advancing its Massigiu and Dankassa gold projects, which are also in Mali.
Shares in Birimian were up 10% in early afternoon trade.
