The following is a transcription of the above video, and The Market Online has edited it for clarity.
Argentina Lithium & Energy Corp. (TSXV:LIT) is focused on acquiring high quality lithium projects in Argentina and advancing them towards production.
We recently spoked with Miles Rideout, Argentina Lithium & Energy’s vice president, exploration.
TMO: For members of our audience who might not be aware, can you please provide an overview of the company?
Rideout: We are a Canadian junior exploration company. We have four project areas in Northwest Argentina. We are exploring lithium brine, so each of these areas is on a salt lake. Argentina is very attractive for lithium investment because lithium extraction is regulated the same way as for any other mining commodity. It means it’s a very favourable jurisdiction for developing lithium projects.
Further, we have two more advanced exploration projects in the pipeline, and then two later-stage projects. And we’re drilling one of our lead projects right now.
TMO: Tell me about the company’s Rincon West Project. Just in terms of its scale and opportunity.
Rideout: At Rincon West we have 5,000 hectares of salar properties, which are located adjacent to Rio Tinto’s Rincon project. Rio Tinto announced their production investment about three weeks ago. Rincon is thus an established mid-grade salar with two projects going into production currently. And we hope to be the third project on that salar.
We’re currently drilling and in resource definition stage, but we have plans to move the project ahead towards production as quickly as we can.
TMO: A few weeks ago, you announced the 12th exploration drill hole at Rincon West, continuing positive results from the site. How many exploration holes remain, and when can a resource announcement be expected?
Rideout: Our 12th hole, we defined a 200-metre interval of concentrated lithium brines in that hole. Very similar results to what we’ve announced in prior holes. The setting there, and I’ll just explain this, our testing there was to define that we have similar brines on our property located west of Rio Tinto to what Rio Tinto has. We have two more exploration holes as part of that initial (lithium project) drill program.
And we’ve also just received our permitting so that we can begin rotary drilling and pump tests on that property. But we have two more property blocks at Rincon West, so exploration permits for those two blocks are pending. We will be defining a resource as soon as we finish drilling.
I hope that we’ll have a resource announcement for the initial block, say September of this year, 2024. And as soon as we have the permits in for the two next blocks, we’ll be moving drills up to those areas. I would imagine each area will require approximately six exploration holes, and then we’ll follow those up with rotary drilling as well.
TMO: In addition to Rincon West, the company also has ongoing exploration at its Antofalla North project. What does the 2024 work plan for the project look like?
Rideout: For your listeners, I’ll just point out that the Antofalla salar is another mid-grade salar, probably grade potential similar to what we have at Rincon. And it’s a similar setting. The primary player at Antofalla is Albemarle Corporation, the world’s second-largest lithium producer. And we’re applying a similar strategy at Antofalla.
We have adjacent property to Albemarle, and once we can begin drilling, what we would be seeking to establish is that we have similar brine grades that Albemarle has and then come up with a plan to take those into production. About a month ago, we received our permitting so that we can begin the geophysical reconnaissance of our properties.
I would expect that would take about three months to complete. And then in the second half of this year, we will be doing six broadly spaced exploration holes along the length of the Antofalla North property. To give your listeners a sense of scale, that property is about 27 kilometres, a north-south extent, and about seven kilometres in east-west extent.
So, it’s a very large block. It’s about 10,000 hectares. And so, our drilling, once we get going with drilling, each drill hole would be spaced at about four-kilometre intervals. It’s a big project that we’ll be drilling out at the end of this year, the second half of this year.
TMO: What makes Argentina Lithium’s project portfolio unique from the rest of the industry?
Rideout: We have properties, large properties adjacent to major producers with proven resources. Our strategy has been to acquire these very favourable property blocks that would interest much bigger players. Also, we are a Canadian-based junior company. By drilling these resources out and producing a plan to take them into production, we expect to deliver a lot of value to our investors.
We’ll be taking our little company from a small exploration company to hopefully a mid-tier lithium producer over the next six or seven years.
TMO: And in terms of investment value, what else can you share with our audience regarding the year ahead?
Rideout: This should be a very exciting year for us as we announce our initial resource. And then hopefully we’ll have a drill running on new property blocks at Rincon.
That will be very interesting news for investors. And the other thing that would be of interest to investors will be as we begin drilling on Antofalla North, if our initial drilling can produce similar mid-grade brines to what Albemarle has, well, that would be a major discovery for our company.
You can find Argentina Lithium & Energy Corp. on the Venture Exchange under the symbol LIT or head to their website at argentinalithium.com for more information.
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