With growing global demand for lithium, Canadian miner Green Shift Commodities announced to have closed the acquisition of areas in Río Negro, Neuquén and Chubut to explore for metal in hard rock deposits. These are the shares he obtained from another mining company in the same country called LFP Resources, which It has some 300,000 hectares with potential in the three provinces.
Argentina It is located in third place within the lithium producers of the salt flats in Latin America. Currently, the projects are located in three provinces: Salta, Jujuy and Catamarca. In the latter there are two initiatives already in production that seek to expand: These are the facilities of the Australian company Allkem in Jujuy, and the one run by the American company Livent, in Catamarca.
On the other hand, there are five projects underway. Now the Canadian Green Shift bets on three provinces located in the south of the country.
The firm acquired all the outstanding shares of the other miner in exchange for an initial payment of $75,000 and the issuance of 17,500,000 Canadian common shares at an estimated price of Cdn$0.14. The closing price of common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange is agreed the day before the closing of the operation.
In turn, as part of the agreed agreement, Green Shift has the right to acquire an additional 200,000 hectares in the provinces to add to the initiative baptized as Rio Negro Project. He will have the ability to make two separate option deals for $50,000, coming down to $25,000 under each contract.
Given the growth of projects in the pipeline in the north of the country, This exploration might be key for the Patagonian region. Unlike the other provinces that extract lithium from salt flats, this one would obtain the metal through the hard rock deposit.
For this they should make more conventional extraction through open pit or underground mines and therefore the process will be more expensive. However, these types of deposits have a lithium concentration in pegmatites considerably higher than in brines.
How the exploration tasks of the Río Negro project will begin
From the signing they explained that They have already established work programs to start “immediately”. The Canadian plans to mobilize field teams to Río Negro to begin its Phase 1 exploration program that will last three months. The work plan consists of prospecting, rock chip sampling and trenching in the highest priority areas located in the Río Negro Project.
have planned begin work around the municipality of Comalloin Rio Negro. They will use a LIBS analyzer (a laser induced breakdown spectroscopy), which provides a real-time estimation of lithium grade. Thus field teams will assess potential and prioritize targets for future work.
After field teams will send samples from priority areas for lithium grade determination to an independent certified laboratory. It is estimated that official laboratory tests usually take approximately six weeks.
The CEO and director of the mining company, Trumbull Fisher, remarked that “we are delighted to announce the successful acquisition of the Río Negro lithium project in Argentina. This marks an important milestone for the miner as we continue to execute our growth strategy and expanding our presence in the lithium sector«. He added that they expect to begin exploration “imminently.”
The new executive president of the mining company for the region, Peter Mullens, commented: “I am excited to assume the role of CEO of Green Shift following the closure of Río Negro. Argentina has exceptional potential for the discovery and production of lithium in both brine and hard rock. I look forward to helping guide the company to a successful future.”
The details of the lithium project in Río Negro
Green Shift highlighted the potential of the lands: the project can cover more than 500,000 hectares with 19 separate pegmatite bodies identified with results of analysis of 60 samples of rock fragments. These were taken during the previous exploration of the project and range from 0.6% Li2O to 4.1% Li2O, with an average of 2.0% Li2O, ranges not yet confirmed by the firm.
The lithium pegmatites in the area were «discovered and sampled in the 1960s by the Argentine governmentin addition to tens of additional kilometers” of areas with similar geological and geophysical characteristics, they commented from the firm.
Indeed, more than 800 structures have been mapped (possible pegmatite bodies) through the interpretation of satellite images in the MC pegmatite field. This work showed that the structures identified have a total length of more than 100 kilometers. Green Shift highlighted that the area is easily accessible throughout the year and it has “extensive infrastructure.”
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