Zinnwald makes progress at Germany lithium project

14th Jun 2023 14:23

(Sharecast News) - Europe-focussed Zinnwald Lithium updated the market on its operational and corporate activities on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded company noted that it had successfully raised £18.75m in funding at the end of March, with support from existing shareholders and strategic investor AMG Critical Materials.

Those funds had allowed Zinnwald to accelerate its work across various areas, notably its infill drilling campaign at the Zinnwald Lithium Project in Germany.

Since the beginning of April, the firm had completed as many drill holes as it had done previously during the campaign.

A total of 16.9 kilometres had been drilled over 56 drill holes at the Zinnwald licence, with results reinforcing the company's understanding of the ore body.

The intersections in Albite Granite lithology had consistently delivered extensive mineralised intervals, supporting the company's strategy to plan for high productivity mining methods.

Those methods could potentially result in higher production levels compared to the estimates in the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) published in September, which projected around 12,000 tons per annum of lithium hydroxide.

Additionally, the new drill-core samples had been used to provide a representative bulk sample for confirmatory bench and pilot-scale mineral processing testwork, conducted by Metso and UVR FIA.

Zinnwald said it was aiming to complete the value-optimized bankable feasibility study (BFS) in early 2024, with ongoing efforts to ensure that the overall project timetable was not significantly impacted.

Additionally, the company said it had finalised the sale of its Abbeytown zinc-lead project in Ireland to Ocean Partners.

"With a strong cash position of €20.9m, we are accelerating multiple workstreams as we focus on completing a BFS at our integrated LiOH project in Germany early in 2024 and expanding the project's size and scope ahead of commencing construction," said chief executive officer Anton du Plessis.

"This includes an extensive infill drill campaign at our core deposit, where a total 16.9 kilometres over 56 holes have now been drilled, with results yielding consistent and extensive mineralised intervals that we envisage will enable us to upgrade the resource later in the year and deliver a higher output at the project than the 12ktpa LiOH highlighted in the PEA released in September 2022."

At 1330 BST, shares in Zinnwald Lithium were down 0.67% at 11.05p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.