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Giyani Metals Corp. CEO Robin Birchall said with the delivery of further exploration success at Otse and K.Hill Extension, is putting Giyani in the best position to capitalise on its first-mover advantage in the battery-grade manganese space.
The company has completed its initial exploration drilling campaign at the Otse manganese oxide prospect and updated exploration at the K.Hill Project.
Giyani has completed its first RC drilling campaign at Otse North and Otse South following up on targets previously identified with an induced polarization survey. Drilling has been focused around the site of historical workings and data has shown an excellent correlation between northwest-southeast trending chargeable anomalies and manganese mineralisation. Visible mineralisation has been confirmed by pXRF analysis.
“Initial results at Otse indicate that we have a significant source of high-grade material to feed our proposed processing facility, lowering future operating costs and further extending our project life. Meanwhile, following our discoveries at the K.Hill Project, we will soon have a better understanding of the true scale of our flagship project,” he said.
“We are already starting to see laboratory analysis turnaround timelines coming under pressure, as the world continues to wrestle with COVID-19 and the latest Omicron variant. As global mining activity ramps up in earnest, we may see reporting timelines start to lengthen.”
With strong global sales of electric vehicles in 2021, the demand for sustainably sourced critical battery materials, including high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate is set to intensify. “As one of the very few new sources of low carbon HPMSM in development globally, we are well-positioned to capitalise on this growing market. Our expanding resource base will give us the flexibility to expand our production to the rapidly rising levels of consumption,” he added.
The first batch of 803 samples has been submitted to SGS in South Africa for assay and a second batch will be sent at the start of 2022. Following assay, mineralogical analysis and metallurgical test work will be undertaken, which will allow the Company to build a geological model and carry out a maiden resource estimation for Otse. This work is expected to be completed in Q2 2022, although this timeline remains subject to laboratory availability, for which the Company notes that facilities in South Africa and worldwide have been experiencing delays due to COVID-19 and its related knock-on effects.
Otse is located approximately 50kms east of the K.Hill Project and connected by a sealed road network.
