The global lithium rush is real, driven by its essential role in the manufacture of the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that will power the electrification of transportation. As mining exploration companies search for large, reliable lithium deposits in politically-friendly countries, Argentina Lithium & Energy Corp. [TSX-V: LIT, OTC: PNXLF, FSE: OAY2] reports encouraging initial results from its 64,000 hectares of claims in Argentina.

About 60 per cent of the world’s known lithium reserves are found in the “Lithium Triangle”, comprising arid parts of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. But Nikolaos Cacos, president and chief executive officer of Argentina Lithium, notes that both Chile and Bolivia present legal impediments to lithium development and production. In contrast, Argentina is an especially attractive destination for lithium investment.

“Largely undeveloped, Argentina probably represents the best opportunity to discover significant new lithium deposits,” he says. “And over 30 years, our team has built unparalleled experience and relationships in Argentina with significant discoveries of silver, gold and uranium. Our director, Joseph Grosso, is considered one of the pioneers of the modern Argentine mining sector and was named to the Argentina mining hall of fame.”

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, significant lockdowns saw little travel to and within Argentina. With limited international competition, the Argentina Lithium team took the opportunity to secure new properties meeting its definition of a lithium “sweet spot” — undrilled properties adjacent to large, mid-grade deposits near key mining and transportation infrastructure.

Argentina’s lithium is typically found in underground brine fields located beneath “salars” — salt lakes where lithium has been concentrated by volcanic processes, weathering and evaporation over millions of years. Beginning with its Rincon West property, Argentina Lithium is now exploring claims on four salars in the pro-mining provinces of Salta and Catamarca.

The Rincon West project lies adjacent to a Rio Tinto lithium project and proximal to an Argosy Minerals property — both with proven lithium reserves. Rio Tinto purchased its property from Rincon Mining in December 2021 for the sum of US$825 million and has entered a memorandum of understanding with the Ford Motor Company to bolster its lithium carbonate supply chain.

Argentina Lithium’s Antofalla North project is located adjacent to, and north of, the property held by the world’s largest lithium producer, Albemarle Corporation, which also holds a large declared resource in the basin. The company considers this another exceptional opportunity to drill out a resource on an established lithium salar.

Two very large and strategic properties were acquired by the company at the Pocitos and Incahuasi salars, where historic drilling has consistently produced intriguing lithium values. These are large property plays in areas which are just opening up.

Miles Rideout, vice president, exploration with Argentina Lithium has 33 years of mining exploration experience in South America, working with many of the leading exploration teams of the region. His work history ranges from property acquisition and early stage exploration to pre-production mining operations. On the Argentine salars, he is applying his background in geophysical exploration to identify prospective brine aquifers for drill targeting using sophisticated deep-imaging technologies.

The company is currently involved in extensive drilling at Rincon West, where geologists are extracting brine samples from porous host materials, including fractured rock, sediments and salts, from depths as great as 300 metres within the extensive subterranean basin. The project is advancing steadily with a new exploration well completed approximately every month. Early results demonstrate the expected, economically attractive mid-grade brine, typically ranging from 300 mg to 380 mg of lithium per litre.

“The brines that we’re recovering have very similar lithium concentrations to those reported on the adjacent Rio Tinto project, which is estimated at 5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, and to the brines reported nearby by Argosy,” Rideout says.

While traditional lithium brine mining has involved time-consuming natural evaporation of brine in large salt evaporation ponds, Argentina Lithium is basing its economic case on direct lithium extraction. It’s a newer technology that uses an adsorbent or an ion-exchange resin to extract lithium ions directly from the brine for processing, and returns the depleted brine back into the basin at selected injection points.

“This process requires perhaps one quarter to one fifth of the fresh water required for the evaporation processes,” notes Rideout. “The technology is so efficient that it improves the extraction from lower-grade brines that would not have been economically viable just a few years ago. There’s also a strong potential to use an extractive process to recover fresh water from the brine, which offers the possibility that the processing could be fresh-water neutral.”

Argentina Lithium’s exploration efforts are well-funded, with about $10 million Cdn in the treasury following a private placement of more than $9 million Cdn in November. Cacos notes that the money is going straight into the ground, with the company looking to publish its initial resource calculation in the first half of 2023.

“We’re building out this resource to the best of our ability and if we continue to get the results we anticipate, we’re hoping to deliver updated resource calculations over the following year as we drill out into the open salar at Rincon,” he says. “We are also planning to initiate drilling at Antofalla North in 2023, with a view to announcing future resources. I believe that news of a significant resource in our first resource report will have institutional investors taking notice.”

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This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content studio, on behalf of Argentina Lithium & Energy Corp.