There's plenty of historical information recorded by Geomines who operated the Manono/Kitolo Mine which you can use to infer some of the characteristics of the Manono Extensions under exploration by AVZ.
Highlights of my Manono mine research:
Lot of ore: Incredibly large resources with 0.2% cassiterite, 0.02% coltan and potentially 1.6% li2O. The manono and kitolo deposits are each 5km long, up to 425m wide and only drill tested to 125m depth (I won't multiply those numbers, its a shockingly large system, you can google it). Up to the first 50m is weathered (kaolinised) but a large bulk of this weathered material has already been mined and processed. It is interesting to consider either the economics of processing the odd 100MT of tailings or the by-product rich fresh rock with high spodumene grade.
Right type of ore: The lithium rich tailings were specifically put aside by Geomines for later processing. Met test work conducted on tailings from fresh rock successfully produced a saleable spodumene concentrate. Test work successfully converted this concentrate to Lithium Carbonate, with Geomines technicians lodging patent applications in the 50s for the methods used (still viewable on google patents).
So now if you come back to the Manono Extensions discussed in this announcement, based on the above, it seems quite probable that we will find the right ore and in abundance. We may need some additional tenement applications to cover the extensions.
The negatives are:
Total 2200km distance to port, with the 600km segment from Manono to Lubumbashi not being reliable.
DRC political, security issues.
This is where I think having someone of Klause Eckhof calibre involved makes me less worried about the above, he hasn't engaged this project on a whim. There would be some form of backing or plan which has taken the above into consideration. He's also just about the best person you could imagine to be backing a DRC project with.
I doubt this project could be anything but a future Lithium Hydroxide / Carbonate conversion, and anyone who can add 1 + 1 would tell you the same, there are some serious capital inputs required and it just doesn't seem like the work of a $5m asx shell. I believe there is potential for scale unmatched anywhere in the world on this site to make the capex for a conversion plant seem like peanuts, additionally I believe the Chinese are quite comfortable with large scale investments in the DRC. It seems to me that all quality resources that are too far from port for bulk trucking will need similar investment and that just about covers all the resources currently under exploration outside of WA, the distance is an equaliser. (Talking about ore bodies that can host 20-30MT+ tonnes)
There's also the off chance that we actually end up in a JV with the DRC on the Manono / Kitolo mines. As far as my research can tell the current "development" partner is mostly biding their time, when the price environment and demand for lithium and tin couldn't possibly be better. I'm holding out for some news on this front as well.
All IMO, DYOR. Just another day of talking to myself on this whisper quiet stock.
