African Battery begins geological work at Lizetta II

Exploration company African Battery Metals announced on Tuesday that it has begun geological work on its recently-acquired 380 square kilometre Lizetta II nickel, cobalt and chrome exploration project in Ivory Coast.

The AIM-traded firm said it commissioned a site visit by a technical team, led by a “highly qualified” exploration geologist to prepare for a structured field exploration programme.

Additional historic technical data had been identified during the visit, and was in the process of being acquired, which will augment the 2017 Watts Griffis McOuat independent consultancy results already acquired by the company.

WGM's 2017 work re-confirmed previous work that showed the occurrence of up to 0.25% cobalt, 0.87% nickel and over 1% chrome in surface anomalies, African Battery reported.

It said the major surface anomaly was open to the south-south-east, and provided potential to expand the mineralisation footprint.

A supplementary surface sampling programme was planned to explore the extension of the mineralisation anomaly to the south-south-east within the project, as well as to follow up on unexplored areas, with the aim of identifying areas potentially suitable for reverse circulation drilling identified from surface anomalies.

“Work has commenced on the Lizetta II Project in the Ivory Coast, with the aim of following up on historical and past indications of nickel, cobalt and chrome soil anomalies,” said chief executive officer Roger Murphy.

“We are pleased to have identified additional historical data which reconfirms the prospectivity of the project, and to have established that the project's mineralisation is open to the SSE.

“Planning of field activities is progressing well, and we will brief the market as soon as these activities have commenced.”

Murphy noted that the project was recently acquired as part of the Regent Resources Capital Corporation transaction, which saw ABM gain “highly supportive and proven” mining professionals, including Stephen Dattels and Ian Stalker, as shareholders.

“The work marks the next stage in our development as we look to work closely with all stakeholders in developing the current asset base, which includes cobalt and nickel projects in the Cameroon and the DRC, as well as identifying additional opportunities to cement our growth strategy and build value.”