LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Firering Strategic Minerals announced the successful completion of its large-scale phase two soil sampling programme at its flagship Atex Lithium-Tantalum Project in Côte d'Ivoire on Tuesday - a significant step forward in the project's development.
The AIM-traded firm said the programme was conducted in collaboration with Ricca Resources, which made a substantial investment of $18.6m to advance Atex to the definitive feasibility study stage, as previously announced on 2 November.

A total of 14,116 soil samples were collected, prepared, and sent to Ghana for analysis using portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) and laser-induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS).

The results of batches one to seven and a portion of batch eight, totaling 6,205 samples, had been received and plotted.

Firering said the soil sampling programme revealed the presence of several new and related pegmatite anomalies within the Atex licence area.

The findings confirmed areas of interest for auger drilling - a technique that would be employed in the next phase of exploration.

It said the final soil analysis and mapping would be concluded in the coming weeks, enabling the fine-tuning of the auger drilling program.

In addition to the soil sampling results, independent testing laboratory Coremet had submitted its first draft report on the coltan test work.

The report highlighted a positive response to magnetic separation and gravity concentration, indicating promising potential for coltan extraction.

"I am very pleased to announce that, after partnering with Ricca, we now have successfully completed our phase two soil sampling programme, which commenced on 9 January," said chief executive officer Yuval Cohen.

"A total of 14,116 soil samples were taken, prepared and sent to Ghana for pXRF and LIBS analysis."

Cohen said iti was "very encouraging" that several pegmatite-related anomalies had been identified, which would be considered as targets in the next phase of auger drilling which would begin imminently.

"I am also pleased to announce that Cormet completed the coltan test work and submitted its draft report on 15 May.

"Coremet's test work indicated that the material can be concentrated and resulted in an initial flowsheet for a gravity plant."

At 1614 BST, shares in Firering Strategic Minerals were down 3.21% at 7.55p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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