Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) is nearing final approval of its submitted environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, required for drilling at the Catamarca lithium project in Argentina.
It is expected that the permitting process can be completed before the end of the year and that the EIA approval will be completed shortly thereafter.
Following the approval of the EIA it is proposed to start drilling immediately at the three top ranked drill-ready prospects.
Each of the prospects will have 6-8 holes drilled using reverse circulation drilling technique.
Drilling is now expected to commence in early January with assays being processed throughout January and February.
Background
The company has secured over 94,000 hectares of exploration concessions in the lithium pegmatite districts of Catamarca and San Luis provinces in Argentina.
LRS was recently granted its final two tenements totalling 7,050 hectares, which expand the now 76,700 hectare Catamarca lithium project in Argentina.
The final two exploration tenements now granted cover the Vilisman and Ancasti project areas, each with past lithium mining activity and together hosting more than twenty lithium bearing pegmatite deposits.
The combined non-JORC estimates of spodumene content within 15 metres of surface of 12 of these deposits within the final two tenements now granted are in excess of 120,000 tonnes.
These lithium bearing pegmatite deposits have a history of small scale past production, having been intermittently exploited for lithium minerals, and associated beryl, tantalum and feldspars during the 1950s and 1970s.
Analysis of three samples collected within these final two tenements now granted reported grades of 7.1%, 6.3% and 4.9% lithium oxide.
Operations update
LRS has also recently completed fieldwork including mapping and sampling in Catamarca and has commenced field work at San Luis province of Argentina.
Planned due diligence for the Ansotana concessions in Salta will now occur after the completion of the first phase of drilling at Catamarca and commence in February, 2017.
During September, LRS signed a binding term sheet for the acquisition, via earn-in, of up to 90% in 442 square kilometres of lithium focused mining concessions in northern Argentina known as the Ansotana Project.
The project area was mined during 1943-1945 for tantalum and bismuth and is known to contain lithium-hosting minerals.
Ansotana is within a pegmatite district with sizes ranging in strike up to 800 metres and widths up to 40 metres.