Askari Metals has identified seven new pegmatite targets at its Uis Project in Namibia, significantly expanding the company’s exploration pipeline as it prepares for the next phase of drilling across what is increasingly shaping up to be a large polymetallic district prospective for tin, lithium, tantalum, rubidium, and caesium.
The newly identified targets were generated through an in-house hyperspectral study that combined advanced satellite imagery and geological interpretation to uncover previously unrecognised pegmatite bodies across the project area. The discoveries include four new targets on EPL 7345 — Eve, GP, MW and K10 — and three additional targets on EPL 8535 known as Tawny, Martial and Zebedeus-1. Together, they add more than 13 kilometres of prospective strike length to Askari’s growing target inventory.
The discoveries form part of a broader 15-kilometre-long and five-kilometre-wide “Corridor of Interest” that the company has delineated as highly prospective for lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites and associated tin mineralisation. The corridor already hosts several established targets and is becoming the focus of an increasingly intensive exploration programme.
Askari executive director Gino D’Anna said the discoveries represent another important step in defining the scale of the Uis opportunity.
“This study marks another important step in unlocking the scale and polymetallic potential of Uis. Our in-house hyperspectral work has now delivered seven new high-priority pegmatite targets, materially expanding the project’s pipeline ahead of the next phase of RC drilling,” he said.
The company is now using the new targets to shape future exploration programmes aimed at narrowing down the most prospective areas before drilling begins.
Detailed geological mapping and rock-chip sampling are already underway across priority targets. At the same time, regional soil and stream sediment geochemical surveys are being prepared to test the broader corridor for concealed mineralisation. Results from these programmes will feed into trenching campaigns planned for both EPL 7345 and EPL 8535 before an initial drilling programme later this year.
Among the newly identified prospects, K10, GP and Tawny have emerged as particularly promising early targets, with field teams already working to convert them into trench-ready prospects while simultaneously searching for additional pegmatites along strike.
The latest discoveries were made using a combination of Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery and high-resolution Maxar WorldView-3 hyperspectral data, allowing Askari to distinguish pegmatites from surrounding host rocks and improve geological mapping across the project area. According to the company, the work has also refined zones considered prospective for lithium, tin and tantalum mineralisation and highlighted potential extensions to known mineralised systems.
To speed up exploration decision-making, Askari has also commissioned its own pellet press and Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) equipment at Uis, enabling future samples to be analysed on site rather than waiting for laboratory results from outside Namibia.
“Importantly, the commissioning of our on-site pellet press and LIBS machine is expected to materially improve assay turnaround times and accelerate exploration decision-making as multiple workstreams advance in parallel,” D’Anna said.
The company expects reverse-circulation drilling to begin next quarter on the DP, OP, PS, and K9 pegmatite targets, while exploration teams continue to expand the broader target inventory across the Uis Project.
