REG - Kodal Minerals PLC - Company Update

Kodal MineralsAnnouncement

14/02/2022 08:15

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RNS Number : 5717B  Kodal Minerals PLC  14 February 2022

Certain information contained within this announcement is deemed by the
Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse
Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this
inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

Kodal Minerals Plc / Index: AIM / Epic: KOD / Sector: Mining

 14 February 2022

 

Kodal Minerals plc ("Kodal Minerals", "Kodal" or the "Company")

 

Company Update - Bougouni Lithium Project Activity and Gold Intersections at
Fatou Project

 

Kodal Minerals, the mineral exploration and development company, is pleased to
provide an update on its Bougouni Lithium Project in southern Mali (the
"Bougouni" or the "Bougouni Project") and to report wide intersections of gold
mineralisation from reverse circulation ("RC") drilling at the Fatou Project
("Fatou") in southern Mali.

 

Highlights

 

Bougouni Lithium Project

·    Kodal technical team completed site visits in January in preparation
for development activity.

·    Development work ongoing, including a detailed LIDAR (light detection
and ranging) survey to commence in late February for use in final development
planning.

·    Meetings held with local Governor and officials and local Chiefs to
update them on Kodal's proposed activities.

 

Fatou Gold Project

·    Initial RC drilling programme consisted of 11 RC drill holes for
1,242m completed.

·    Final assay results of RC drilling returned multiple zones of gold
mineralisation with broad intersections and grade up to 7.09g/t gold.
Intersections include:

o  23m at 1.63g/t gold from 82m - including 6m at 3.88g/t gold from 94m &

11m at 1.37g/t gold from 111m &

4m at 1.93g/t gold from130m to end of hole in drillhole FNRC001

o  6m at 1.49g/t gold from 40m - including 1m at 4.18g/t gold from 40m &

3m at 1.43g/t gold from 80m in drillhole FNRC007

·    RC drilling confirms multiple mineralised zones and highlights
extensions to the north and south.  Additional drilling is required to test
the Fatou prospect.  Geological mapping and sampling of artisanal workings is
in progress and first pass sampling of the southern extension of the
mineralised structure into the Foutiere concession has commenced.

 

 

Bernard Aylward, CEO of Kodal Minerals, commented: "Kodal continues to
progress the development of the Bougouni Project.  During the site visit to
Mali in January, meetings were held with the Minister of Mines to discuss our
upcoming work and development programme.  Kodal continues to receive strong
support from the Mali government and regional officials for the development of
a new lithium mine in the Bougouni region."

 

"Kodal's technical team completed a site visit to the project as part of the
continued development programme to upgrade and update the Feasibility study to
support a decision to mine.  The next phase of work will be to complete a
detailed LIDAR survey to assist in the finalisation of the processing plant
and infrastructure planning"

 

"The wide intersections of gold mineralisation from the initial drilling
programme at the Fatou Gold project confirm the historic drilling.
Unfortunately, several of the drill holes in this initial programme were not
able to reach target depth due to issues with the artisanal workings and
drilling problems.  The next stage of drilling will focus on strike
extensions of the mineralised structures away from the workings and historical
drilling."

 

"The lithium spodumene market has commenced the 2022 year by continuing the
strong price support and market sentiment noted over the 2021 year.  The
strong increase in demand for lithium spodumene concentrate highlights the
potential of our Bougouni project that is fully permitted for
development."

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

 

Bougouni Lithium Project

Kodal Minerals completed the initial Bougouni Feasibility Study in January
2020 to support the mining licence application, details of which were
announced on 27 January 2020.  The Project was based on a proposed open pit
mining operation with a 2Mtpa processing plant utilising a conventional
flotation circuit to maximise spodumene recovery.  The Feasibility Study
indicated a very robust project with strong fundamentals including:

·    Minimum 8.5-year mine life producing on average 220,000 tonnes of 6%
spodumene concentrate per annum, at life of mine ("LOM") lithium average
metallurgical recovery of 71%;

·    Total LOM will produce 1.94Mt of concentrate with LOM revenue
exceeding US$1.4bn; and

·    Estimated C1 cash costs of US$431 per tonne concentrate (US$466
including royalties and sustaining capital).

 

*C1 is the net direct cash cost that represents the cash cost at each
processing stage from mining through to recoverable metal as indicated in the
Company's announcement of 27 January 2020.

 

Kodal completed a technical site visit to Bougouni in January 2022 to continue
the development programme.  A detailed LIDAR survey has been planned for the
project area and will commence in late February.  This survey will provide
detailed information to assist in the final planning of the processing plant
and associated infrastructure.  In addition, community engagement,
consultation and evaluation of the impact of the proposed mining sites is
continuing with our Environmental Consultants, Digby Wells.

 

Kodal has previously announced an engineering work programme to provide an
update on the capital cost estimate for the development of the Project and
complete a detailed assessment to confirm the operating costs of the Project,
including the review of the proposed transport costs (details of which were
previously announced on 27 January 2020), ahead of securing funding for mine
development and construction.  This programme of work is continuing with a
focus on the process plant design and capital cost estimate, improvements in
metallurgical recovery and an update of the open pit optimisation of the
defined minerals resources.

 

Fatou Project Drilling Programme

Kodal has competed an initial RC drilling programme consisting of 11 drill
holes for 1,242m completed.  Drillholes were unable to reach planned depth in
five of the eleven completed holes due to the presence of artisanal workings
and poor ground conditions.  Initial geological logging of the drillholes has
confirmed the presence of sulphide mineralisation and alteration of host rock
geology that may indicate the presence of gold mineralisation.

 

All assay results have now been received for the drilling with multiple zones
of gold mineralisation and several wide structures intersected.  Geological
mapping and sampling of the artisanal workings is in progress and these drill
holes will be incorporated into the historical database to fully assess the
gold mineralised zones.  The drilling programme highlights a very extensive
structural zone of gold mineralisation that currently remains open to the
north and south.

 

Significant intersections for the RC drill holes calculated using a 0.5g/t
gold lower cut-off, maximum 3m internal dilution are tabled below:

 

 

 

 

 Hole Id   Northing  Easting  Hole Depth  From  To       Thickness  g/t Au

                              m           m     m        m
 FNRC001   1192313   748676   134         39    45       6          1.44
                                          82    105      23         1.63
                              includes    94    100      6          3.88
                                          111   122      11         1.37
                                          130   134 eoh  4          1.93
 FNRC002   1192306   748757   168         138   139      1          2.62
 FNRC004   1192400   748501   60          26    27       1          5.71
 FNRC006B  1192501   748523   170         70    71       1          1.48
                                          86    87       1          1.2
 FNRC007   1192499   748601   160         40    46       6          1.49
                                          40    41       1          4.18
                                          80    83       3          1.43
                                          104   107      3          1.01
                                          119   120      1          3.62
                                          152   154      2          1.28

Notes:  Drill holes are RC drill holes. Drill holes have been sampled on a 1m
basis with samples collected via a riffle split system.  Drill hole collars
are surveyed using a differential GPS with sub 1-metre accuracy, coordinate
system WGS84 - Zone 29N, and all holes are survey down-hole for dip and
azimuth on approximately 30m intervals. All drill holes are geologically
logged, and sampling for analysis in based on geological boundaries.  Samples
analysed by SGS Laboratories with preparation in Cote d'Ivoire and final
analysis in Burkina Faso. Assay results are reported as g/t gold (ppm)
Intersections are reported using a 0.5g/t gold lower-cut-off, and allowing for
a maximum of 3m internal dilution

 

Fatou Project

The Fatou Project consists of two concessions, the Fininko (also known as
Fatou) and Foutière concessions, located 280km south of Bamako, the capital
city of Mali (refer Figure 1).  The project forms a contiguous landholding
exceeding 300km(2) and has been acquired through agreements with local vendors
(refer to Kodal's announcement of 17 December 2020).

 

Geological Setting

The Fatou Project is hosted within the Birimian sequence of West Africa, a
sequence of mafic volcanic rocks separated by sedimentary basins and are
intruded by granitic rocks of varying composition.  The geology at Fatou
Project is mostly sedimentary sequences interlayered phyllite and siltstone
along with abundant volcaniclastic and tuffaceous strata. These rocks are
intruded by three phases of granodiorite occurring as small plutons and
stocks. Minor mafic and felsic dikes occur as tabular stocks. The geology is
weathered to a depth of 75m (typical depth between 35m and 50m) and laterite
capped mesa are formed with the laterite extending for several metres' depth.

 

The dominant structural feature observed at the Fatou Project is a major
northwest-trending shear zone which aligns the gold targets, local shear
fabrics, folds, cross faults, low angle faults, planar fabrics, and
crenulation. The northwest shears are inferred to be steeply dipping to
slightly east-dipping and further low-angle structures have been interpreted
in drill hole modelling that dip to the east.

 

Figure 1:  Fininko and Foutiere project locations, south Mali

 

Figure 2: Fatou Project - concession locations and historic exploration
drilling.  Background is regional geological interpretation

 

To view the announcement with the illustrative images please use the
following
link: http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/5717B_1-2022-2-14.pdf
(http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/5717B_1-2022-2-14.pdf)

 

 

**ENDS**

 

For further information, please visit www.kodalminerals.com or contact the
following:

 

 Kodal Minerals plc

 Bernard Aylward, CEO                                            Tel: +61 418 943 345

 Allenby Capital Limited, Nominated Adviser

 Jeremy Porter/Nick Harriss                                      Tel: 020 3328 5656

 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP, Financial Adviser & Broker

 John Mackay                                                     Tel: 020 3470 0470

 St Brides Partners Ltd, Financial PR

 Susie Geliher /Ana Ribeiro                                      Tel: 020 7236 1177

The exploration results and activity reported in this announcement have been
reviewed by Mr Bernard Aylward who is a Member of the Australasian Institute
of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Aylward has sufficient experience that is
relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under
consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Qualified
Person as defined in the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies dated
June 2009. Mr Aylward consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the
matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

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