Australian mining company Red Rock Resources has announced in a press release that it has discovered traces of lithium at its gold mining site in the Boulou locality in the Cascades region.
“A lithium-bearing leucogranite channel has been identified and crosses one of our gold mining permits. The center of this mapped channel, which contains some of the highest lithium anomalies, lies beneath our permit,” reads the press release, a copy of which was received by APA.
Back in 2011, Burkina Faso’s ‘Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres’ (Geological and Mining Research Bureau, BRGM) and the ‘Bureau des Mines et de la Geologie’ (Mining and Geology Office, BMG) carried out a regional geochemical study of sediments in the South-West (Gaoua) and Cascades (Banfora), as well as the southern fringe of the Hauts-Bassins (Bobo-Dioulasso), and the results showed
potentially mineralized zones.
The World Bank-funded “Mining Sector Development Support Project” identified “200 geochemical anomalies.” Of these, “76 have attracted attention due to their intensity, signature and litho-geochemical context. 56 concern gold and the remaining 20 various substances such as zinc, tungsten, tin, lithium, rare earths…,” BRGM explains.
“This is an important milestone for Red Rock, and we are assessing the financial implications as we test the equipment and further delineate the pegmatites within our licenses,” the mining company’s press release goes on.
Lithium is classified as a high-tech metal. While it has long been used in medicine for certain bipolar treatments, or by the glass and ceramics industry, lithium is far better known for its presence in rechargeable batteries.
For the past ten years or so, this metal has kept smartphones, computers, bicycles and electric cars running smoothly. Australia is the world’s biggest lithium producer (55 percent), followed by Chile (26 percent), China (14 percent) and Argentina (6 percent). In Africa, Zimbabwe is the leading lithium producer.
Zimbabwe is Africa’s leading lithium producer.
SD/ac/fss/abj/APA