Argentina Lithium acquires Antofalla property and starts drilling at Incahuasi

Argentina Lithium & Energy (LIT.V) has expanded its project portfolio with the most recent acquisition of 14,000 hectares of land on the Salar de Antofalla in Argentina's Salta province. The acquisition will happen in two parts; a first 9,000 hectares have been staked whilst Argentina Lithium has entered into an option agreement to earn a 100% stake in an additional 5,300 hectares.

The exact details of the option agreement haven't been published, but Argentina has disclosed it will be required to make US$3.5M in cash payments (of which US$3M will be deferred until after the initial 18 months of the earn-in agreement) and US$7M in exploration expenditures (with $0.5M in Y1, $1.5M in Y2, $2M in Y3 and $3M in Y4).

CEO Nikolaos Cacos appears to be happy with the acquisition, as Argentina Lithium has considered the Antofalla salar a region of interest. A region, indeed, as the salar has a total surface area of approximately 800 square kilometers. Previous operators have reported grades of 350 mg/l lithium. A good start!

In other news, the company has now started a drill program at its Incahuasi lithium brine project in Argentina's Catamarca province. This is the drill program which was originally pre-announced in January but had to be postponed due to heavy rain. LIT will drill 4 holes to depths of 400 meters to test two highly conductive domains, identified by a vertical electrical geophysical survey.