Latin Resources Ltd (ASX:LRS) is ready to kick off a drilling campaign at the Salinas Lithium Project in Brazil after two diamond drill rigs arrived on site.
With the rigs in tow, the resources stock plans to drill 14 diamond holes comprising 2,000 metres across a series of priority drill targets at the lithium property.
In the past, sampling at the targets has returned high-grade hits, including 2.71% lithium oxide and 1.45% lithium oxide from spodumene-bearing pegmatites, mapped over a strike length of more than 1.2 kilometres.
With the drill campaign set to commence in the coming days, Latin is preparing to explore a prolific lithium district.
Salinas is in the highly prospective Bananal Valley district of the Minas Gerais Province — a rich mining region in Brazil, and home to the Grota do Cirilio Project, which is being developed by billion-dollar stock and TSX-V-lister Sigma Lithium Corp (TSX-V:SGML, OTCQB:SGMLF, NASDAQ:SGML).
“Hit the ground running”
Speaking to the imminent drilling campaign, Latin Resources’ managing director Chris Gale said: “We are extremely excited to be finally drilling our Salinas lithium projects.
“The team we have assembled on-site will hit the ground running with drilling to start within a few days.
“We are very confident our exploration fieldwork along with this drilling will deliver positive news over the next few months.”
Shares higher
Investors responded positively, sending shares as much as 23.33% higher to A$0.037 with more than 33 million shares changing hands during the day.
Latin’s drilling campaign is designed to test two priority target areas where sampling has returned multiple, high-grade results.
The program marks the first drilling activity to test this highly anomalous and outcropping mineralised trend in a region that currently contains 100% of Brazil’s official lithium reserves.
Exploring Salinas
Initial results from the 38-reconnaissance stream sediment sampling conducted over the Salinas South project have highlighted a 'lithium corridor' extending northeast-southwest across the tenement for more than 6 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 158 parts per million (ppm) lithium are well above the background results of 45ppm lithium, as determined by Latin’s baseline reference sampling downstream from a known high-grade lithium-bearing spodumene pegmatite.
The company will drill 14 holes to test the outcropping high-grade lithium-bearing pegmatites identified in previous mapping and geochemical sampling programs.
Lithium in Minas Gerais, Brazil
Sigma Lithium is the most active lithium explorer in Minas Gerais region with a world-class lithium resource base, which stands at 45.7 million tonnes at 1.38% lithium oxide.
Sigma is focused on 10 high-grade hard-rock lithium pegmatites, nine of which were past-producing lithium mines, yet have reported more than 200 pegmatites within their tenure. Sigma is now in pre-construction of its large-scale lithium concentration commercial production plant in Minas Gerais.
Based on the feasibility study, the commercial production plant will contemplate a capacity of 220,000 tonnes annually of battery-grade 'green' lithium concentrate and Sigma will be among the lowest-cost producers of lithium concentrate globally.
Whilst not far away, CBL is actively mining spodumene pegmatites, producing a spodumene concentrate which is then transferred to a chemical plant in Divisa Alegre, Minas Gerais, where it is transformed into industrial grade lithium hydroxide.
Latin Resources is particularly excited by the opportunities this may present in the future for battery-grade lithium hydroxide production.
