Kamativi project set for more exploration after positive findings

UNITED Kingdom-headquartered mining group, Galileo Resources says it is encouraged by the assay results obtained from Phase 1 drilling programme   completed recently at its Kamativi Lithium-Tin Mine in Matabeleland North Province.

Last year, the company listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) began exploring the Kamativi asset and its gold mine in Bubi, close to Bulawayo. Adjacent to the Kamativi Lithium project is the now-closed Kamativi Tin Mine, which yielded a substantial lithium potential in tailings, mostly as spodumene, the world's most sought-after lithium mineral. Galileo, which also explores and develops copper, rare earth aggregates, iron ore, and manganese, expressed its excitement over the Phase 1 drill assay results for the Kamativi Lithium-Tin project in an update this week.

Under the 10-hole Phase 1 angled drilling program, samples covering a about one-kilometer by 0.5-kilometer region were gathered, from which the complete assay results were obtained. This was the group's first reconnaissance drilling operation, and according to chairman and CEO Colin Bird, the results have been positive, peaking at 1,03 percent lithium oxide (Li2O) across a four-meter depth. The extremely anomalous lithium in this discovery is distributed throughout the mica schist host rock rather than being contained just in the pegmatite, which is an uncommon occurrence.

"Our mapping programs have located more discordant pegmatites than previously recognized, and we have no doubt that discordant pegmatites are the drivers to lithium content," he stated. "It is not surprising that we also find anomalous tin associated with these discordant pegmatites, sometimes simultaneous with lithium, given that the nearby Kamativi mine was a long-producing tin operation. "We are happy with the results of our ongoing fieldwork and the reconnaissance drilling program."

Galileo's initiatives outside of Zimbabwe include the Concordia Copper Project, the Glenover Rare Earth Project, the Ferber Project, the Kashitu Project, the Star Zinc Project, and the Kalahari Copper Belt Project in Botswana. According to Mr. Bird, based on the findings of the Phase 1 drilling and the mapping work, they want to drill for lithium and tin in Kamativi again. In particular, cross-cutting pegmatite/aplite dykes and the origin of the extensive lithium occurrences inside the present Target 1 and at four other designated target zones on the asset will be the focus of future development.

Apart from exploring lithium and tin, the company has also explored areas near the ancient Gwaii Copper Mine in the southern portion of the licence, where fresh anomalies in the soil have been found. He stated that they will be monitored in addition to the lithium/tin treatment. Because lithium is essential to the production of lithium batteries, which are used in electric cars, it is currently one of the most sought-after minerals.

The global switch to electric vehicles (EVs) is part of major global market initiatives to reduce emissions that pose a threat to the environment by reducing the use of non-renewable energy sources. As a result, demand for the base metal is predicted to increase exponentially. Though commodity prices are currently plunging on the global market, Zimbabwe, the sixth-largest producer of lithium, stands to gain a great deal from the increasing demand for EVs and the base metal.