Anson Resources Ltd (ASX:ASN) (FRA:9MY) has increased the exploration target at its Paradox Brine Project in the US after a review of historical drilling data confirmed a massive, supersaturated brine aquifer in the Mississippian Leadville Formation within the project claims at a depth of around 8,000 feet.
These brines are similar to those in the Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation at around 6,500 feet where a lithium/bromine indicated and inferred resource has been estimated of 322 million tonnes of brine at 186,000 tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) and 1,012,000 tonnes of bromine.
The exploration target for the Leadville supersaturated brine consists of 1.3-1.8 billion tonnes grading 80-140 parts per million lithium and 2,000-3,000 parts per million bromine.
“Exciting exploration upside”
The revised exploration target for both the Mississippian Leadville and Pennsylvanian Paradox Units has a combined range of 1.7-2.5 billion tonnes of brine - representing an up to 230% increase in contained lithium and a 493% increase in contained bromine of the previous exploration target.
Anson executive chairman and CEO Bruce Richardson said: “The expansion potential presented by this massive brine aquifer located below our existing resource is significant, and provides exciting exploration upside to an already robust resource base at Paradox.”
Exploration target Mississippian Leadville & Paradox Formations with brine & grade variables.
JORC estimate re-entry program
The company’s strategy to increase the inferred and indicated JORC resource was to conduct additional re-entry programs and sample the targeted Paradox clastic zones and it had submitted a Plan of Operations (PoO) to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to re-enter the Mineral Canyon well to sample brine from Clastic zones 17, 19, 29, 31 and 33.
However, as the revised exploration target provides justification for re-entering old wells to sample the saturated brines found in the Leadville, the company has altered its exploration program for the Mineral Canyon well and redesigned drilling procedures to enable to extend the sampling program to extend into the Leadville limestone brines that have been recorded for the Mineral Canyon well.
A revised PoO has been submitted to the BLM.
Cross section of the location of existing wells drilled into the Paradox and Leadville rock units
Next steps
Once the PoO is approved, the company intends to conduct its first sampling of the Leadville brines and if successful the data could be used for future JORC resource estimation upgrades.
Richardson said: “Plans have been finalised and submitted to undertake a low-cost well re-entry program which will enable our technical team to test this aquifer and its potential to add to our current JORC resource.
“The Paradox Project is entering an exciting phase and is well positioned for future development and we look forward to providing further updates on key work streams in due course.”