Azure Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZS, OTC:AZRMF) has declared an exploration target for its Andover Lithium Project in WA just days after it delivered a 209-metre lithium hit.
The conceptual target estimates between 100 million and 240 million tonnes of ore at Andover, grading between 1% and 1.5% lithium oxide.
This target covers anticipated lithium mineralisation in target areas one through three, where drilling continues to test pegmatites internally and along strike.
At present, the target doesn’t extend to lithium beyond those target areas but Azure believes this mineralisation has the potential to increase the overall lithium endowment at Andover.
As such, the explorer is eager to get boots on the ground in neighbouring prospect areas that bear all the hallmarks of anomalous geochemistry.
Main target areas at Andover.
Target (NYSE:TGT) acquired
Forty diamond and 83 reverse circulation drill holes, together covering more than 30,000 metres of ground, fed into the newly minted exploration target at Andover.
Azure also collected just shy of 2,750 drill results and 900 rock chip assays to set its parameters — a subset of Andover’s large pegmatite field, which measures up to 9 kilometres across and up to 5 kilometres from top to tail.
One structure of note is the AP0011 pegmatite, which recently returned up to 209.4 metres at 1.42% lithium oxide from 219 metres.
That high-grade intersection also included higher-grade intervals like 126.2 metres at 1.72%, 56.1 metres at 2% and 19.7 metres at 1.54% further downhole.
Recent drilling also highlighted a 183.1-metre, 1.25% lithium oxide hit from 170.5 metres, including 58.9 metres at 1.46%, 30 metres at 1.55% and 11.2 metres at 1.85%.
Mineralisation at Andover is now thought to extend for more than 1,800 metres along strike, while vertical depths could easily surpass 400 metres.
Pegmatite outcrops, drilling and section lines at Target Area 1.
Last Friday, Azure managing director Tony Rovira said Andover’s broad, high-grade hits firmly ranked the project among the world’s best lithium exploration plays.
“Encouragingly, the results suggest the mineralisation remains open along strike and to depth, providing Azure with the potential to produce similar, if not better, lithium intersections of such scale and tenor in future drilling,” he explained.
“The Andover project is an exceptional discovery given the abundance of outcropping mineralised pegmatites and substantial widths of high-grade mineralisation intersected in the drilling.
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