Zinnwald Lithium GmbH, Freiberg/Germany, has announced the new results of the drilling campaign in the Altenberg-Zinnwald area and published them in a press release on the London Stock Exchange. The results show that the deposit is several times more productive than previously assumed. “Due to the immense amount of data from the extensive 2023 drilling campaign, the evaluation took a little longer,” says Marko Uhlig, Managing Director of Zinnwald Lithium GmbH. The independent engineering firm Snowden Optiro Ltd, which specialises in mineralogy, has evaluated this data. According to the latest calculations, there are around 430,000 t lithium metal in the planned mining area in the Zinnwald region. “This is encouraging, as it is significantly more than the first estimate in 2018. At that time, a maximum of 125,000 t was assumed,” continues Uhlig.
Anton du Plessis, CEO of Zinnwald Lithium Plc in London, explains in the official stock exchange release: “We are pleased to announce a substantial expansion of our deposit in the Zinnwald project with an increase in lithium content of 3.4 times. This makes the project the second largest bedrock lithium project in the European Union. Both in terms of the size of the deposit and the lithium content. This emphasises its size and strategic importance.”
This increase in resources is the result of very extensive drilling, which has produced a total of 26,911 m of drill core from 84 drill holes. In addition, not only the core zone was investigated, where high lithium contents are found in the grey iron rock. The increase in total tonnage is primarily due to the inclusion of a broad zone of mineralised granite. The surrounding albite granite rock has now also been analysed and lenses with a high lithium content can also be found there.
“Against this background, it is pleasing that the now proven size of the mineralised zone with a thickness of up to 80 m and the continuity of the ore will support more efficient extraction with the potential to significantly increase lithium production,” concludes Uhlig. (Zinnwald Lithium/Si.)
