VANCOUVER, BC – Argentina Lithium & Energy Corp. is pleased to announce that it is expanding its lithium exploration project at the Salar de Antofalla in Argentina. The Company has entered into an option agreement with a group of three local vendors to earn a 100% interest in three granted mine concession properties totaling 5,380.5 hectares situated adjacent to the Company’s 9,000 hectares of 100% held claims.
“This acquisition further bolsters our presence in this highly prospective salar. Albemarle Corporation, a major lithium producer, stated that its lithium resource in the southern portion of Salar de Antofalla is expected to be certified as the largest in Argentina,” stated Nikolaos Cacos, President and C.E.O.
Located in the famed Lithium Triangle, the geological environment at the Salar de Antofalla is similar to other salars in the region where lithium and potash are found, and the project is less than 20 km west of Argentina’s largest lithium producing operation at Salar de Hombre Muerto. The Salar is over 130 km long and varies between 5km and 20km across, with reported basin depths of more than 500m.
In 2016, Roskill information Services reported that the private mining company Bolland had drilled 56 boreholes over 265km2 in its claim block in the centre of the salar, ~57 km south of the Argentina Lithium Antofalla properties,and reported a resource 2.22mt of lithium (11.8mt LCE) grading 350mg/l and 83mt of potash (KCl) grading 6,400mg/l. This project is now owned by Albemarle Corporation. [Investors are cautioned that this information is taken from the publicly available sources, has not been independently verified by the Company and it is not known if it conforms to the standards of NI 43-101. Furthermore, proximity to a discovery, mine, or mineral resource, does not indicate that mineralization will occur at the Company’s Project, and if mineralization does occur, that it will occur in sufficient quantity or grade that would result in an economic extraction scenario.]
Work by the vendors on the Optioned Properties included surface sampling of brines at 14 locations in 2017. Brines were sampled at depths to 4 metres, over 7 days, and returned lithium anomalies up to 61.1mg/L.
On August 24, 2018, Argentina Lithium reported the completion of a CSAMT geophysical survey at the Project to map deep stratigraphic units and provide additional information on the subsurface in order to delineate drill targets. The survey identified several potential targets with high conductivity in the first 100 metres and moderate conductivity at deeper levels. Reconnaissance drill holes were recommended by the consulting geophysicists to determine the cause of the conductive anomalies and to test for lithium-bearing brines.
Option Agreement Details
Terms of the option include cash payments totaling US$4,000,000 over 42 months, but limited to only $600,000 in the first 18 months. The option also includes annual exploration expenditure commitments of $500,000 in year one, followed by $1.5M in year two, $2.0M in year 3 and $3.0M in year 4.
