www.li3energy.com
Li3 Energy, Inc. is a growing, expertly managed lithium exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of highly prospective lithium brine properties in the Americas. The company is led by a proven management team and board of directors with extensive resource sector, corporate development and finance expertise. Li3 Energy’s technical team has direct experience successfully exploring and producing lithium resources.
Li3 Energy launches $8 mln phase 1 exploration, development program at Maricunga
Li3 Energy (OTC:LIEG), a U.S. listed, South America-based lithium and mineral explorer, said Friday that it has launched a brine resource evaluation program at its flagship Maricunga project, and provided an operational update.
Maricunga is situated in the northeast section of the Salar de Maricunga in the Atacama region in northern Chile, at an elevation of 3,760 metres above sea level. The property is ranked by independent firm signumBOX as one of the top eleven lithium projects in the world.
The $8 million phase one exploration program includes seismic survey and modeling, core sample drilling, well drilling, laboratory testing and property acquisition and improvement.
The resource evaluation program is aimed at estimating, according to NI 43-101 compliant standards, in-situ brine resources, and their potential for economic extraction.
The lithium miner said it has hired Argentine-based Geophysical Exploration & Consulting S.A. to carry- out a high resolution pressure-wave seismic refraction tomography survey. In October, about eight line kilometres were collected, with an additional 20 line kilometres planned to be completed by year-end.
Boart Longyear, a mineral and exploration drilling company, has also been engaged to perform sonic drilling to collect core samples for porosity and brine chemical analyses. Two sonic bores have been completed to a depth of 150-metres each, with six sonic boreholes for a total of 900-metres planned.
About 54 undisturbed samples were collected and shipped for porosity determinations, the company said, and also noted that initial results are expected sometime in December. Sonic core recovery is above 90 percent, Li3 added.
In terms of well drilling, Rock Drilling S.A., a Chilean company specialized in exploring and making water wells, is performing a reverse circulation drilling program, and will also install two production wells to 150-metres depth as well as eight observation wells.
To date, Rock Drilling has finished 452 metres of reverse circulation drilling, with a pumping test program slated for December 2011. Ninety eight brine samples have been collected and shipped with assay results expected to be available in December.
Preliminary results so far include three boreholes that were completed to 150 metres indicating the presence of a halite, or rock salt, which is underlain by a sequence of alternating sand, clay and gravel layers for a combined thickness of up to 120 metres.
Conductivity and specific gravity measurements carried out on the collected brine samples indicate the presence of brine resource to 150 metres depth, the company said.
Furthermore, reverse drilling airlift flows of up to 10.9 litres a second were measured and indicated that the extraction of brine through production wells is likely feasible. Exploration potential remains open at depth, Li3 said.
Evaporation tests at field level are planned to begin early next year to appraise process flow sheets and establish metallurgical recoveries of lithium and potassium salts contained in the brine.
As the company seeks to expand its land package in the area, the company is continuously evaluating more claims to acquire adjacent to the project, it said.
Li3 will also need to acquire additional claims for its processing site and plans to improve the project site infrastructure, camp, and property.
Li3’s COO, Thomas Currin, commented: “Despite inclement weather conditions, Li3 is on plan and continues to advance the Exploration and Development Program on our Maricunga Project.
"Our advanced technology initiatives and interactions continue to demonstrate positive results that upon completion of testing, if successful, could provide Li3 a significant competitive advantage in the lithium mining sector."
The company said that after the completion of the phase one exploration program, results could allow Li3 to achieve measured and indicated NI 43-101 resource evaluation status on the project in the first-quarter of 2012.
