adminAUSTRALIA-listed Prospect Resources has received approval for its environmental impact assessment and investment licence for its Arcadia lithium project in Zimbabwe.
The company described the approval from the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) as “a significant milestone”.
Prospect deemed it prudent to separate its gold assets from the lithium assets into two separate subsidiary structures, each with their own ZIA licence, saying that it would offer greater flexibility as to how the Arcadia lithium project could be financed and how the company financed its gold assets.
Chairperson Hugh Warner said since starting drilling activities in July 2016, Prospect had conducted extensive work focusing on the social and environmental impacts for the development of Arcadia.
“The requisite geohydrological, social and relevant impact assessments completed by our consultants and subsequent approval by the EMA further endorses and moves Arcadia towards production. In addition, the endorsement by the ZIA provides the company with the ability to take advantage of the variety of investment and fiscal incentives offered to investors in Zimbabwe,” he highlighted.
The Arcadia project has a mineral resource of 23.4-million tonnes, at 1.42 percent lithium oxide. An additional exploration target of between 80-million and 100-million tonnes, grading at between 1.2 percent and 1.5 percent lithium oxide, also existed within the flat-lying pegmatites. — Mining Weekly
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