Aim-listed Firering Strategic Minerals (FSM) has announced it will soon start with an 11 000 m Auger drilling programme, which will be followed by reverse circulation drilling, at the Atex lithium project, in Côte d'Ivoire.
This followed a Phase 1 diamond drilling and Phase 2 soil sampling campaign on the project, the former of which comprised more than 3 000 m drilled over 19 holes.
The company could find lithium mineralisation in 18 of the 19 drill holes.
Assay results on the initial drilling found intercepts of 64 m grading 1.24% lithium oxide from 76 m and 25 m grading 1.39% lithium oxide from 77 m.
The soil sampling work, which was completed in June, determined six high-priority soil anomalies for lithium mineralisation.
The company had secured up to $18.6-million of investment from Ricca Resources to fund the advancement of the Atex project and the adjacent Alliance licence.
To this end, FSM had received an upfront $1-million cash consideration from Ricca.
Ricca will complete a four-stage earn-in of up to 50% of the Atex project through funding of up to $17-million towards a definitive feasibility study.
Meanwhile, FSM in March acquired 13% of the issued share capital of operating company Atex for €258 484, increasing its stake in the company from 77% to 90%.