Latin Resources Ltd (ASX:LRS) has re-signed and extended an exclusive two-year Option on the Bananal 830.691 tenement agreement.
Latin may acquire a 100% interest in the tenement contiguous with its existing Bananal Valley Project.
Bananal is a highly prospective tenement within LRS’ Salinas Lithium Project in Brazil and features known outcropping high-grade lithium spodumene-bearing pegmatites.
Initial outcrop sampling and mapping at Bananal has already confirmed the presence of spodumene-bearing pegmatites within the new tenements, with two samples returning high grades of 2.71% Li2O and 1.45% Li2O respectively.
The Salinas Project is in the highly prospective Jequitinhonha Valley district of Minas Gerais Provence of eastern Brazil, which hosts the Eastern Brazilian lithium pegmatite province, home to $978 million capped TSX-V listed Sigma Lithium Corporation and lithium producer Companhia Brasileira de Lítio (CBL).
“We are very excited to continue to grow our Brazilian lithium landholding in one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world, Minas Gerais,” LRS executive director Chris Gale said.
“If we can replicate the success of one of our closest peers, TSX listed Sigma, located around 80 kilometres southeast, with a market capitalisation just shy of C$1 billion market today, the Salinas Lithium Project would add enormous value to Latin’s shareholders.”
Option to acquire 100% of Bananal
Latin will issue a monthly payment of US$100, to the vendor for a period of 12 months for the exclusive purchase option.
At any time during the 12 months, LRS has the right to exercise its option to purchase, at which point monthly payments will cease and purchase payments will begin.
Within 15 days of the date of the exercise date, LRS shall pay or allocate to the vendor:
- The total amount of US$15,000; and
- The total amount of US$15,000 in LRS shares.
Further to this, within 15 days of the completion of 12 months after the exercise date, LRS shall pay to the vendor the total amount of US$75,000.
Should LRS acquire 100% of the tenements, the vendor will keep a transferable 3% net smelter royalty on all commercial sales from the project.
If LRS defines a mineral resource of at least 10 million tonnes in any category with a grade of at least 1.3% Li2O within the concession, it will pay the vendor a bonus US$50,000.
Mapping confirms spodumene-bearing pegmatites
Replication of Sigma’s success may be some way off, however, LRS is encouraged by initial reconnaissance mapping completed over the tenement.
LRS collected a series of outcrop samples and submitted them to the laboratory for analysis.
Results confirmed that the mapped pegmatites contain lithium-bearing spodumene with one sample returning a grade of 2.71% Li2O from highly weathered outcrop, and several others returning anomalous lithium grades.
Initial results represent a significant anomaly in an area of highly weathered outcrop – a highly encouraging outcome.
Notably, the results came over a strike of greater than one kilometre.
LRS considers these results, including two adjacent samples returning grades of 2.71% Li2O and 1.45% Li2O respectively, to represent an extremely high priority area for the company.
“The field team has identified significant spodumene outcrop that will potentially grow into a lithium mineral resource. The next step is to identify high profile lithium drill targets and commence drilling as soon as we can,” Gale said.
Underexplored but highly prospective
The underexplored Jequitinhonha valley region currently contains 100% of the official lithium reserves of Brazil.
Latin Resources geologists have been hard at work here since 2019, identifying several occurrences of spodumene never previously known or reported.
Asa it looks to expand its footprint and consolidate its holding in the area, LRS is in constant discussions and negotiations with surrounding landowners on properties that display positive pegmatite outcropping through the current exploration fieldwork.
LRS aims to build a significant lithium footprint in the district.
The Bananas option gives the company another well-advanced spodumene tenure that could allow it to rapidly drill test any potential lithium deposit and quickly advance to JORC compliancy.
Work at Salinas South
In August this year, LRS took a step closer to unlocking the resource potential of its Salinas Lithium Project following a fieldwork and mapping campaign.
It was the first post COVID work the company had done, with Gale saying, “The significant time and investment that Latin has invested in our lithium projects, along with the COVID situation in Brazil becoming more manageable, now allows the company’s lithium strategy to reboot to develop our valuable lithium projects in a fantastic mining province”.
LRS has delivered strong results since rebooting.
Initial results from the 38-reconnaissance stream sediment sampling conducted over the Salinas South project highlighted a “lithium corridor” extending northeast-southwest across the tenement for over six kilometres, with a cluster of highly anomalous results from drainage sampling in the northeast of the tenement.
These results represent a significant blind anomaly in an area that is devoid of any outcrop.
The high-grade stream sediment results which peak at 158ppm lithium are well above the background results of 45ppm, as determined by Latin’s baseline reference sampling downstream from a known high-grade lithium-bearing spodumene pegmatite.
LRS has now prioritised follow-up sampling in the area, comprising of infill stream sediment sampling and a wider program of systematic grid soil sampling.
Sampling is being conducted to define drill targets for Latin’s planned maiden drilling campaign.