South East Asia Resources Ltd (ASX:SXI) has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire a private company engaged in lithium exploration in the Republic of Serbia.
As a result of the acquisition, the company will come to possess an exploration tenement portfolio comprising five exploration licences covering circa 329 square kilometres.
Serbia is the only current known source of jadarite, a new lithium-borate bearing mineral discovered in 2004 by Rio Tinto plc (LON:RIO).
Rio Tinto’s Jadar lithium-borate discovery, one of the largest lithium deposits in the world, has 135.7 million tonnes at 1.86% lithium and 15.4% borate.
The new exploration licences are strategically located 10 kilometres to the north and 90 kilometres southeast of Rio Tinto’s Serbian project.
South East Asia Resources is aiming to target two styles of lithium mineralisation; granite complexes with associated pegmatite and greisen mineralisation/ Jadar style sedimentary sequences.
The projects are strategically placed for European manufacturers using lithium, being just a nine hour drive from the industrial heartland of Germany.
In conjunction with the acquisition, the company will seek to raise up to $5 million at $0.02 per share.