The company said good continuity of mineralisation and the location of the Ewoyaa Main deposit, which has an indicated resource of 4.5 million tonnes grading 1.39% Li2O, made it a likely starter pit site for a low-cost mine with extraction widths up to 100m. The "single continuous pegmatite body broadly coincident with a hill [and likely] low strip ratios" supported a "high-level Whittle optimisation demonstrating reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction".

IronRidge's overall indicated resource for Ewoyaa-Abonko-Kampakrom is 14.5Mt at 1.31% Li2O, with regional exploration continuing to expand resources and ‘project optionality'.

"Thanks to the coarse nature of the spodumene dominant mineralisation, metallurgical testwork to date has consistently delivered high-purity, low contaminants [more than] 6% Li2O spodumene concentrate at a coarse 6.3mm crush utilising conventional DMS gravity separation; boding well for low-capital intensity," IronRidge COO Len Kolff said.

"Further testwork at ANSTO [in Australia] has demonstrated that the Ewoyaa concentrate is highly amenable to conventional conversion producing battery grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide products.

"The mineral resource is exceptionally well located in Ghana, being only 800m from the sealed national highway and 110km from the operating deep-sea port of Takoradi with adjacent high-power transmission lines; it is challenging to find other lithium pegmatite projects better located."

IronRidge CEO Vincent Mascolo said the Ewoyaa resource "reaffirms our pursuit of becoming a dominant West Africa spodumene source for the emerging electric vehicle and stored energy space".

IronRidge raised £2 million at 10p last November for its lithium and gold exploration in Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Chad.

Its shares (LSE: IRR) closed Tuesday in London down 4.9% at 12.12p, capitalising the company at £40.62 million.