MGX Minerals Inc (CSE:XMG, OTCQB:MGXMF) could not be accused of letting grass grow under its feet. It is now poised to open an office in Santiago, Chile to consider future deals.
It has hired leading consultancy Kura Minerals to lead in-country asset development, a group, which has existing relationships throughout South America and is led by a Chile based management team.
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Kura was co-founded by Francisco Acuna, who previously supported Chilean operations for mining major BHP Billiton (LON:BLT).
Legal manager Alvaro Florez, before joining Kura Minerals, was in house counsel, for Chilean subsidiaries of Freeport-McMoRan Inc and Lundin Mining Corp.
Exploration manager Thomas Eggers supervised more than 25 exploration projects in Northern-Central Chile, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia for Anglo American plc (LON:AAL).
MGX said it had "mandated Kura Minerals to represent the company on a variety of fronts, including evaluation, negotiation and permitting of potential new projects as well as establishing potential joint venture partnerships to utilize the company's rapid lithium brine processing technology".
Yesterday, MGX revealed it continues to explore the latest technologies in mineral extraction, saying partner PurLucid has developed a high temperature filtration method to purify geothermal brines, which are similar to oil field brines.
Geothermal brines, like those from oilfields, contain concentrated amounts of metals and dissolved salts, including lithium and gold.
"We believe in investing in technology and innovative processes that disrupt how the energy industry thinks and operates," said MGX president and chief executive Jared Lazerson.
"Our newest technological advancement offers yet another first-mover opportunity into a large and often stagnant sector hungry for new ideas."
Similar to MGX's existing wastewater treatment and rapid petrolithium recovery units, MGX and PurLucid are now undertaking studies to build treatment systems capable of being integrated into existing geothermal infrastructure or incorporated as standalone systems for mineral and metals extraction.
MGX Minerals is a diversified resource group with interests in lithium, magnesium and silicon assets throughout North America.