JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – In light of the rising global demand for lithium, Aim-listed IronRidge Resources has set out to acquire a highly prospective 400 km2 primary hard-rock lithium exploration licence in Côte d'Ivoire from Enchi Pro.
IronRidge can acquire up to 100% of the project through staged earn-in arrangements and expenditure to feasibility study stage within a four-year period, subject to a residual net smelter royalty of 2%.
Enchi Pro’s royalty will be capped at $2-million. Funding will be used to undertake further exploration work and, pending results, define a maiden resource and complete project studies.
IronRidge CEO Vincent Mascolo said the acquisition would consolidate the company’s West African lithium portfolio and strategy.
“We see enormous potential in supplying the growing energy industry with lithium and securing the Côte d'Ivoire resource directly complements our recent acquisition activity in this space in Ghana.
"The asset presents a strategic opportunity that consolidates and covers resource scale potential, simple mineralogy and proximity to infrastructure in a mining-friendly jurisdiction. We believe this endorses the potential for success at the project as a first quartile cost producer, with low capital expenditure requirements and a simple mining and treatment process,” he added.
The tenement, located 75 km from Abidjan, holds multiple untested pegmatite occurrences, with a reconnaissance field visit identifying multiple outcropping pegmatites over 15 m to 20 m in width, along several hundred meters strike, with outcrops up to 25 km apart along the interpreted trend.
Upon completion of a due diligence, IronRidge will pay $60 000 to Enchi Pro, followed by a $20 000 asset transfer fee and a $60 000 scoping study, earning IronRidge 85% in the project.
At the start of an estimated $150 000 prefeasibility study, IronRidge will increase its stake to 90%, with a $225 000 feasibility study lifting its stake to 95%.
At this point, Enchi Pro can either co-contribute or dilute down to a net smelter return royalty of 2%, at which time IronRidge will have earned 100%.