Pursuit Minerals completed CSAMT survey has yielded multiple zones considered to be highly prospective for lithium brine at the recently acquired Mito tenement, by far the largest of the landholdings which make up its Rio Grande Sur project in the Argentinian province of Salta.
Two distinct resistivity layers included a large, deep and contiguous layer with extremely low resistivity, identified at 200 metres and stretching to around 600 metres depth.
Pursuit Managing Director and Chief Executive Aaron Revelle said the results from the survey continued in line with its expectations for the project to host a significant lithium brine resource – one that now extends onto Mito.
“The CSAMT data has outlined multiple low resistivity (high conductivity) layers from approximately 150m to 500m in depth at the Mito tenement. These layers are below the current Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (NI43-101) Inferred Resource drilling which extended to 100m,” Mr Revelle said.
“The data additionally suggests that the area is conductive and could yield similar results to a company which drilled ~2km to the north-east of the Mito tenement off the Rio Grande Salar and yielded exceptionally high grades averaging 773mg/Li with several samples returning in excess of 850mg/Li from ~300m below the surface.”
Maiden drilling continues over the Salar group of tenements, and Pursuit will target a campaign over Mito after its conclusion.
Resource upside and difference-makers
The Rio Grande Salar is known to host an Inferred Resource of 2.1 million tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent at an average grade of 370mg/L to a depth of 100 metres, and with the brines now interpreted to go to depths of 500 metres, planned drilling to that mark is expected to significantly increase the overall resource.
Around 3000 hectares of Pursuit’s tenements cover a section of that resource, a factor that MarketOpen analyst Mansoor Jan says places Rio Grande Sur as far more advanced and de-risked than any other greenfield opportunities in the Lithium Triangle.
And the company has further distinguished itself by acquiring a lithium carbonate pilot plant capable of producing 100 tonnes per day, a strategic asset originally constructed in 2013 at a cost of around US$3.6M and acquired by Pursuit at just US$365k.
Pursuit is planning to progress to a definitive feasibility study quickly post-drilling, incorporating results and announcing a JORC compliant resource estimate with the potential for significant upside.
