AVZ Minerals keeps momentum going at Manono with $25m drilling, early works spend

Emerging producer AVZ Minerals (ASX: AVZ) has committed $25 million to continue advancing its Manono lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while it awaits the issue of its mining licence.

The money is set to come from the company’s recent $75 million capital raising and will fund early development works and exploration.

Activities will include extension drilling at the historic Roche Dure pit within Manono – targeting potential expansion of the project’s current JORC resource.

Meanwhile, AVZ noted the project “continues to receive wide ranging government support for all outstanding permitting and licencing requirements”.

Upgrading roads, building camp, buying critical equipment

Of the $25 million, $19 million will be allocated to upgrading existing roads and bridges to assist in the transporting of equipment; buying critical mobile equipment required for the early development work; getting on with camp construction and entering key service contracts; and making progress on metallurgical, downstream processing and infrastructure studies.

The company says the $25 million program will help maintain the timetable for development of Manono, while the remaining $6 million will go to Roche Dure drilling.

‘Confident’ of receiving mining licence

AVZ managing director Nigel Ferguson said the company was in close consultation with the Democratic Republic of Congo Government authorities who are undertaking the mining licence assessment and is confident of delivering a favourable outcome.

“The [$25 million work] decision demonstrates the board’s confidence of receiving the support required to make the development of the Manono project a reality and, importantly, should maintain our project development timetable despite the award of a mining licence taking longer than we had previously anticipated,” he added.

The historic Manono pit was mined for its tin content between 1919 and 1982, during which time a total of 100 million cubic metres of ore were processed to produce 185,000t of cassiterite concentrate.

With the exception of some exploration work carried out on the old mine dumps, aimed at determining cassiterite and spodumene grades, little prospecting has taken place since 1960.

AVZ holds a 75% interest in Manono, located in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo and north of the city of Lubumbashi, considered the “mining capital” of the country.