LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Africa-focussed minerals exploration company IronRidge Resources announced on Friday that its Cape Coast application had been granted as an exploration licence.
The AIM-traded firm said the newly-granted licence is adjacent to the Mankessim exploration licence in Ghana, which hosts the Ewoyaa Lithium Project, where the company had defined an initial JORC 2012-compliant mineral resource estimate of 14.5Mt at 1.31% lithium oxide in the inferred and indicated category, including 4.5Mt at 1.39% lithium oxide in the indicated category.

It said the granting of the licence would provide it with access to 139.23 square kilometres of "highly-prospective" lithium tenure, and bolster its Cape Coast lithium portfolio.

The company said the original Cape Coast application was for 264 square kilometres, with 139.23 square kilometres granted in line with mining regulations, bringing the total Ghana Cape Coast lithium portfolio to 560 square kilometres.

It said only 13 square kilometres of IronRidge's 560 square kilometre Cape Coast portfolio had been drill tested to date, with "significant" exploration potential within proven prospective pegmatite hosting terrain.

IronRidge said the project had "ideal" infrastructure support, with the projects located within 110 kilometres of the operating Takoradi deep-sea port, within 100 kilometres of the capital Accra, and adjacent to the sealed Takoradi-Accra highway and high-power transmission lines.

"We are very pleased to have been granted this Cape Coast exploration licence, strengthening our existing portfolio in Ghana," said chief executive officer Vincent Mascolo.

"We will move aggressively to commence regional exploration on the licence to define additional pegmatite targets.

"The licence is exceptionally well located, both geologically and from an infrastructure perspective, and provides the company with access to an additional 139km2 of highly prospective geology, adjacent to the company's Ewoyaa Lithium Project."

Mascolo said the company was "confident" the additional exploration tenure would help generate targets to potentially increase resource scale and improve overall Ewoyaa project economics, where it had defined Ghana's first lithium JORC-compliant resource of 14.5Mt at 1.31% lithium oxide, within 110 kilometres of an operating deep-sea port.

"The company is ideally positioned to take advantage of the increasing demand for lithium due to its role in the stored energy transition and we look forward to keeping shareholders updated as further results become available."

At 1020 GMT, shares in IronRidge Resources were up 4.88% at 22.55p.

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