By Yange Ikyaa
As part of its strategy of identifying high-value mineral resource opportunities and leveraging its first mover advantage in Nigeria, Thor Explorations Limited, through its fully-owned subsidiary, Newstar Minerals Limited, has announced the acquisition of significant tenure in South-West Nigeria that covers both known lithium-bearing pegmatite deposits and a large unexplored prospective pegmatite-rich belt.
Thor is a West Africa-focused mineral exploration and mining Company that currently operates the Segilola Gold Mine in Nigeria and is advancing the Douta Gold Project in Senegal towards development. However, its initial focus has been in the South-West quadrant of Nigeria, where vital infrastructure, including port facilities at Lagos and elsewhere in Cotonou, are located within close proximity.
Against this backdrop, Thor has secured over 600 square kilometers of granted tenure in Nigeria that forms West Oyo, Kwara and Ekiti States Lithium Project Areas. The West Oyo Project Area encompasses what Thor considers to be Nigeria’s most significant lithium pegmatite occurrence and is currently being exploited by small-scale lithium mining.
The Company says it will leverage its in-country first-mover experience in large-scale hard-rock gold exploration, mine development and production, together with the consequential country de-risking advantages. Furthermore, exploration and development of the lithium-pegmatite opportunities will operate in parallel with Thor’s expanding gold business.
Its initial field inspection and selective sampling of key sites have returned significant lithium grades from both ‘hard-rock’ spodumene and lepidolite mineralization. Sampling of part of a key pegmatite deposit that falls within Thor’s tenure returned an analysis of between 1.34% lithium oxide (“Li20”) and 9.31% Li20.
The Company’s objective is to develop its first large-scale lithium mine without the need to sell down ownership positions or dilute existing Thor shareholders. As a result of this, it will continue to focus on exploring the potential for mine life at Segilola, producing the Preliminary Feasibility Study at Douta, while continuing to develop this lithium opportunity.
According to Segun Lawson, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Thor, “We are extremely excited to be able to bring this opportunity to our shareholders. Nigeria is well-known for its high-grade lithium-pegmatite deposits most of which are worked on at an artisanal scale for associated high-value gemstones and tantalum.
“We have assembled a significant land package containing lithium bearing pegmatites and existing lithium production and we intend to implement modern, socially and environmentally appropriate exploration and development techniques designed to exploit the larger-scale potential of Nigeria’s pegmatite fields.
“While gold remains fundamental to our growth strategy, we consider the virtually untapped lithium potential of Nigeria to be an opportunity that is too good to miss, particularly given our established in-country presence, experience and first-mover advantage.
“We intend to develop both businesses without any shareholder dilution. Given our financing partners and Chinese development relationships, we also believe we are well positioned to fast-track any commercially feasible opportunities to production, and we look forward to updating the investors with our progress on this exciting, value accretive venture.”
In late 2022 Thor undertook an assessment of the opportunities for large-scale development of lithium pegmatites in Nigeria. This work focused on Oyo State and other regions in South-West Nigeria and comprised inspections of known small scale mining operations that were being worked mainly for gemstones and tantalum. In some locations, it was noted that there had been a shift towards producing high-grade spodumene and lepidolite ore that is being sold at a limited scale.
The southwestern portion of Nigeria is underlain by basement rocks that form part of the Pan-African mobile belt. It is intruded by younger granites and is unconformably overlain by Cretaceous and younger sediments. The main lithologies in this region include amphibolites, migmatitic gneisses, granites and pegmatites.
The pegmatite fields in the southwestern part of Nigeria mainly trend in a NW-SE direction. The pegmatities occur as extensive very coarse-grained dykes that, typically, contain medium-grained microcline-albite-quartz, blocky microcline-quartz, coarse-grained quartz and a core of coarse-grained muscovite-quartz.
Thor has undertaken a limited amount of sampling to assess the potential for high grade spodumene and lepidolite mineralization. The sampling data, together with field observations, provided sufficient encouragement to proceed, initially acquiring tenure in areas that returned the highest grade lithium mineralization.
At the West Oyo Lithium Project, a large outcropping pegmatite intrusive has been partly excavated over an extensive area in a small-scale mining operation.
In forming the West Oyo Lithium Project, Thor’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Newstar, has acquired the rights to granted tenure that covers this pegmatite deposit in addition to strike extensions to the south and north.
A limited amount of sampling was conducted to assess the potential for high grade spodumene and lepidolite mineralization. These samples were analyzed by SGS Laboratories in Randfontein, South Africa, using inductively coupled plasma (“ICP”) and fusion analytical techniques.
Location 6 of the West Oyo Lithium Project is the site of the largest known zoned spodumene-lepidolite pegmatite in Nigeria. The pegmatite outcrops cover a width of approximately 50 meters and strike length of several hundred metres. The full extent of this pegmatite body is yet to be determined.
A small scale mining operation is currently extracting a variety of spodumene known as kunzite for its gemstone characteristics, with most of the typical spodumene being discarded. The grade of 9.31% Li20 from the sample from L06 suggests near-surface enrichment.
The West Oyo Lithium Project comprises approximately 38 square kilometers of exploration tenure that is located towards the westernmost border of Nigeria and within 200 kilometers of the commercial capital of Lagos.
The project area is unique in the Nigerian context, as it is mostly located in a relatively sparsely populated region of the country, but within close proximity to large population centres and advanced infrastructure such as roads, rail and ports.
The West Oyo Lithium Project has not been subjected to modern systematic exploration, such as drilling. Thor believes that it therefore represents an exciting opportunity and potential for a major lithium pegmatite discovery.
The Company has commenced a 5,000-metre scout drilling program at the West Oyo Lithium Project and intends to rapidly assess the resource potential with bulk sampling, mineralogical studies and lithium extraction test work on the pegmatites currently located and acquired. Based on these outcomes, systematic exploration and resource drilling will be focused on the areas that have been shown to have the most positive commercial characteristics.
Thor considers the West Oyo Lithium Project as an important initial step towards establishing as a leader in lithium exploration and development in Nigeria. Several additional opportunities have been identified and it is expected that these will shortly form part of the project pipeline. It also aims to become the “centre of gravity” that will attract and consolidate the many lithium opportunities that exist throughout southern Nigeria.
This may be facilitated by the fact that Thor has established and developed excellent relationships at Federal, State and Departmental levels of the Government in Nigeria.
The views of the Nigerian Government are reflected in the following public domain extracts:
“Chairman of the Board of the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), Uba Sa’idu Malami, a Co-Founder of the Geological Society of Nigeria, has been quoted as saying that “lithium is the new oil that could significantly control global wealth and economy of nations in the coming decades,” adding that “the new economic order will be largely dictated by the ability of nations to take advantage of emerging opportunities afforded by lithium resources.”
