KEY POINTS
- Askari Metals has completed a district-wide soil sampling programme at its Uis project in Namibia.
- The survey is targeting tin, lithium, tantalum, caesium, rubidium and gold mineralisation.
- Results will guide follow-up exploration, including mapping, trenching and potential drilling.
Askari Metals has completed a large-scale soil geochemical sampling programme at its Uis project in Namibia, marking a key step in the Australian-listed explorer’s efforts to identify new mineralised zones across the district.
The campaign covered Exclusive Prospecting Licence 7626 (EPL 7626) in the Erongo region, an area that Askari considers prospective for both critical minerals and gold.
The company designed the programme to search for extensions of mineralised pegmatites associated with the nearby operating Uis tin mine, while also testing areas that have seen limited modern exploration.
Askari said the survey was aimed at detecting both exposed and concealed pegmatite systems and generating new targets for further exploration.
The soil programme concentrated on geochemical indicators associated with highly evolved lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites.
Samples were analysed for tin, lithium, tantalum, caesium and rubidium, a combination of elements that can help explorers identify pegmatite systems with potential economic mineralisation.
The results will be assessed alongside geological mapping, structural studies, geophysical data and hyperspectral information.
Askari plans to use the combined datasets to identify anomalies, rank the most promising areas and determine which targets should move into more detailed exploration.
Potential follow-up activities include additional geological mapping, rock-chip sampling, trenching and, depending on the results, drilling.
EPL 7626 is not limited to pegmatite-hosted critical minerals. Askari also believes the licence has potential for gold mineralisation because of its position along major regional structures linked to gold deposits and discoveries in the area.
The licence sits on an upper major structure connected to the Okondeka Fault Zone. That structural corridor hosts WIA Gold’s Kokoseb gold deposit and Ongwe’s Manga gold discovery.
Askari therefore intends to examine the soil geochemical results for indications of both pegmatite-related mineralisation and structurally controlled gold.
