Following the undertaking of its Lithium Ridge project sampling programme, in Namibia, Aim-listed Andrada Mining has reported that results have extended the surface mineralisation of the project by 50% to a total of 9 km.

The company also highlights that these results identified high-grade lithium, tin and tantalum anomalies within multiple new pegmatites across the project’s licence area, building on the initial results, which confirmed the presence of mineralisation along the primary Lithium Ridge trendline.

Andrada reports that multiple grab samples returned grades exceeding 3.5% lithium oxide with associated tin and tantalum anomalies. The grab samples consistently returned high-grade tin and tantalum with grades up to 7.38% tin and 3 192 g/t tantalum.

The company adds that this programme identified about 1 500 outcropping pegmatites through satellite and aerial imagery from which 1 230 grab samples were collected. These samples will build a geochemical database of the pegmatites across the Lithium Ridge project area.

Moreover, the Stage 1 drill programme, comprising about 16 500 m of orientated diamond drilling, was completed in May and targeted most of the mineralised pegmatites identified by the mapping and grab sampling programmes.

Andrada also highlights that the samples from the drilling are currently being dispatched for analysis and the company will continue to provide updates on the drilling results as they are received.

“The completion of the licence-wide surface sampling programme marks another important milestone in our evaluation of Lithium Ridge. The results extend the identified mineralised trend by an additional 3 km and confirm high-grade lithium mineralisation across multiple new pegmatites, together with significant associated tin and tantalum mineralisation.

“These results complement the encouraging diamond drilling results reported to date, which have demonstrated lithium mineralisation from surface to borehole depth and have strengthened our understanding of the scale and continuity of the broader pegmatite system.

“The identification of additional mineralised pegmatites beyond the principal trend further highlights the exploration potential that remains across the licence area,” Andrada Mining CEO Anthony Viljoen says.