West Africa-focused mineral exploration and development company Kodal Minerals has a busy exploration programme planned for the months ahead, with a focus on its lithium projects at Bougouni, in Mali.

CEO Bernard Aylward said in February that the company would return to drill its Ngoualana prospect at its Bougouni lithium project, in southern Mali, as soon as possible, following the company’s receipt of the project’s first assay batches for a reverse-circulation (RC) drilling programme.

“We expect to start a follow-up drilling programme in February and to advance the priority targets with the aim of establishing a maiden resource as soon as possible,” Aylward pointed out.

He describes the first drilling intersection from Ngoualana, which remains open along strike and at depth, as “highly encouraging”, with wide, high-grade mineralisation intersected in drilling confirming surface observations. “We are eagerly awaiting the final assay results as our drilling continued to intersect a wide, coarse grained pegmatite body with high spodumene content.”

The first drill hole at the Ngoualana prospect has returned 21 m at 1.7% lithium oxide from a depth of 62 m, including a high-grade core of 12 m at 1.81% lithium oxide from 69 m. A further seven drill holes from Ngoualana are awaiting assay results, with drilling continuing to intersect a wide (up to 30 m down hole) main pegmatite vein and multiple subsidiary and parallel veins. The company says the geological review of the drilling programme indicates that the Ngoualana vein has a strike length of more than 250 m and it remains open along strike.

The Ngoualana vein is hosted in a sequence of metasedimentary rocks.

Drilling at Bougouni’s Sogola prospect has confirmed high-grade, near-surface mineralisation and intersections include 3 m at 1.92% lithium oxide from surface, including a maximum value of 2.94% lithium oxide. Results indicate that, at Sogola, the pegmatite has split into several narrow veins of variable width (less than 8 m) that remain open at depth and along strike. The strike length of the veins exceeds 300 m, with coarse spodumene again identified in the drill chips. The Sogola vein is hosted in a granodiorite unit.

Drilling at the Bougouni’s Kola prospect, a narrow continuous pegmatite unit, has confirmed the pegmatite veins and returned high-grade assays up to 2 m at 1.94% lithium oxide. Coarse spodumene has been noted in drilling and this closely relates to the assay results, which are pending for the additional two Kola drill holes.

The strike extensive pegmatite vein has a strike length exceeding 400 m. The prospect remains open along strike and at depth; however, the vein is narrow where currently explored.

Aylward notes that it is Kodal’s strategy to build a major project within its Bougouni licence area that will be amenable to mining, extracting from multiple sources. Further, initial drilling at Sogola and Kola has confirmed the high-grade lithium mineralisation; however, as the pegmatite bodies are narrow, exploration will continue to assess these prospects as potential support for the development of a significant zone at Ngoualana.

RC Drilling

The first pass RC drilling programme targeting the Sogola, Ngoualana and Kola pegmatite veins at Bougouni was completed in mid-December 2016. The programme consisted of 18 drill holes for 1 323 m, comprising six holes for 415 m at Sogola, eight holes for 712 m at Ngoualana and four holes for 196 m at Kola, with all geological logging and sampling completed. The assay results received to date are for the Sogola prospect, one drill hole of the Ngoualana prospect and two holes for the Kola prospect.

The drill holes have been sampled on 1 m and 3 m composite basis, with samples collected using a riffle splitter.

The samples were analysed by ALS Global, with sample receipt at ALS Bamako, in Mali, sample preparation at ALS Ouagoudougou, in Burkina Faso, with final analysis completed at ALS Vancouver, in Canada. Sample analysis was completed using a four-acid digest, with final detection by the inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy method.
As of February, a total of 328 samples had been received, with a further 400 samples pending. The maximum assay value returned is 2.92% lithium oxide and is associated with a coarse grained, spodumene-rich pegmatite unit. A total of 54 samples (16% of samples received) returned assay values greater than 1% lithium oxide, and all pegmatites intersected in the drilling were mineralised.

Bougouni Project

Bougouni consists of two concessions, Kolassokoro and Madina, which cover a contiguous area of 500 km². Kodal has recently entered into option to purchase and access agreements that grant it the exclusive rights to explore and develop any identified mineralisation within the project area.

The project is about 180 km south of Bamako, the capital city of Mali, with excellent access to Bougouni through a sealed road from Bamako.