State-owned Mutapa Energy Resources (MER) says an exploration exercise has confirmed nearly 40 million tonnes of lithium resources at its Sandawana Mine in Mberengwa. Speaking at a recent press conference, MER Chief Executive Officer Innocent Rukweza said a JORC-compliant assessment had confirmed 39.9 million tonnes of lithium resources on Block A. Block A is only 30% of Sandawana’s mining claim, with the remaining 70% yet to be explored.
Rukweza said the high proportion of measured resources sets Sandawana apart from many other mining operations, where measured resources typically account for a much smaller share of the total resource base. “It is my singular honour to announce that we are, from the best of our knowledge, the first Zimbabwean mine with measured resources constituting 72% of our total resource. “The resource that has been confirmed by JORC is 39.9 million tonnes, of which 28.7 million tonnes are measured.
“It means the resource is certain and bankable,” Rukweza said. Rukweza said the current resource estimate involved drilling of 103,000 metres, 33,000 samples and an investment of US$24 million over 11 months. “Of our exploration on Block A, and all in all, we did an exploration of 103,000 metres.
It was a very aggressive exercise that took us 11 months for us to complete, and we had 33 000 samples that were collected and tested to come up with these results. “The first phase of our exploration cost us 24 US dollars, just to do the exploration of the results that we are sitting on,” Rukweza said. Beyond lithium, the exploration programme identified six associated minerals within the deposit, although only tantalum and niobium were found in economically recoverable quantities alongside the lithium resource.
The company has already mined two million tonnes of ore from Sandawana and is constructing a three-million-tonne-per-year concentrator plant, with supporting infrastructure already under development. Rukweza said the latest resource estimate provides a strong foundation for expanding operations as exploration continues across the remaining claims. The post 40 million tonnes of lithium confirmed at Sandawana, says Mutapa Energy Resources appeared first on NewZimbabwe.com.
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