Overview

Mine Type	Underground
Stage	Permitting
Commodities	Lithium Spodumene Quartz Feldspar
Mining Method	Longhole open stoping Sub-level stoping Longitudinal open stoping
Backfill type	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The Wolfsberg Project will comprise two integrated operations, a mining and processing operation to produce a lithium concentrate (spodumene), and a hydrometallurgical plant to convert the spodumene into battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM). Wolfsberg Lithium Project is Europe’s first fully licensed Lithium (spodumene) mine.

Deposit type

• Vein / narrow vein
• Pegmatite

Summary:

The spodumene bearing pegmatites occur in form of veins within a regional anticline. The pegmatite veins are intruded into amphibolite and mica schist host rocks strictly concordant to their foliation. On the northern limb of this anticline, which is known as Zone 1, the strata uniformly strikes WNW-ESE(average 120 º) and dips to the NNE at an average of 60 º.

The amphibolite hosted pegmatites (AHP) are stratigraphical hanging wall position relative to the mica schist hosted pegmatites (MHP) although they overlap. The AHP has greyish to greenish spodumene crystals aligned sub-parallel to the pegmatite contacts and average about 2 to 3 cm in length reaching a maximum of 15 cm. Spodumene crystals are more or less homogeneously distributed within a fine-grained matrix of feldspar and quartz with flakes of muscovite. The MHP lack the typical features and textures of pegmatites having undergone a penetrative metamorphic overprint almost completely recrystallising the original pegmatitic minerals. The spodumene minerals are in the form of mm sized lenticular grains embedded into very fine feldspar, quartz and muscovite matrix.

MINERALISATION
The Project is located within the Koralpe-Wölz nappe system of the Upper Austroalpine unit of the Eastern Alps, a mountain range composed of pre-alpine (mainly Palaeozoic) medium- to fine-grade metasedimentary rocks. Within the Eastern Alps, a pegmatite belt covers an area of over 400 km, where most of the pegmatites do not host a lithium mineralisation. Minerex identified 15 parallel lithium bearing pegmatite veins striking west-northwest to east-southeast and dipping at approximately 60° to the north-northeast. The veins were hosted in two host rock types, amphibolite and mica schist, and the pegmatites from these host rocks are known as amphibolite hosted pegmatites (AHP) and mica schist hosted pegmatites (MHP). The MHP veins were followed along strike for 1,700 m and the AHP veins for 800 m. Although the chemistry of the AHP and MHP is similar, there are physical differences. The AHP are coarsely crystalline with visible spodumene crystals, and a lithium grade of up to 2.94% Li2O whereas the MHP have undergone a partial secondary recrystallisation, and their texture is much finer with spodumene crystals barely visible, and a slightly lower lithium grade of 2.7% Li2O. Of the multiple spodumene-bearing pegmatite veins, 15 have been individually identified, within both amphibolite and mica schist host rocks, as having economic potential based on lithium grade and vein thickness. Veins of up to 5.1 m have been encountered.

The deposit type may be considered to be a class of rare-element pegmatite, of the lithium- caesium tantalum family, of the albite-spodumene type. Although the origin of the intruded pegmatitic melt is still unclear, recent research assumes partial melting and internal differentiation of the mica schist.

Dimensions
The currently explored deposit has an extension in strike of 1,700 m. The maximum vertical extension is about 400 m (1,650 masl to 1,250 masl) along strike due to varying exploration strategies in the past. The veins are steep to medium dipping and most of them have expressions on the surface. It is expected that the deposit continues deeper than currently explored.

The width of the veins averages 1.45 m with maximum width recorded at 5.5 m. Intersection lengths in the boreholes were logged but not sampled if less than 0.1 m.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

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Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Apr 22, 2024