The
Bitterwasser lithium project, Kalkrand, Namibia
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Pitting and percusion drilling obtained high lithium values from surface down to 12 meters in a chain of pans (salt lakes) stretching over a distance of 60 kilometers.
Percussion
drilling the main pan at Bitterwasser
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The clays in the main pan of Bitterwasser contain an average of 558 ppm lithium, 462 ppm boron and 7 683 a ppm potassium .
- The estimated lithium-bearing clay tonnage of the main pan is 400 million tonnes. It comprises 24% of the total area covered by the pans.
- The contained lithium carbonate equivalent of the main pan is 1 188 094 tonnes or $11.8 billion at a price of $10 000 per tonne lithium carbonate.
- The clays are underlain by sediments of the Upper Cretaceous Kalahari Group and the water intersected from 17 (water borehole on southernmost pan) to 26 meters could be the upper portion of a stratified lithium brine aquifer as the water table in the area is generally at 60 meters below surface.
- The pans were formed in closed basins caused by deep-seated structures as evidenced by two hot water boreholes on the eastern edge of the main pan.
- The post-Cretaceous Brukkaros crater to the south of Bitterwasser is the result of explosive activity caused by superheated steam coming off magma reacting at the level of the near surface groundwater table and the likely mechanism by which lithium was leached and deposited. It has an extensive volcanic field with radial fissuring of the overlying Upper Cretaceous Kalahari sediments (66 – 72 million years) and more than 100 carbonatite dykes and 74 carbonatite diatremes.
Doros
crater
