Monumental Minerals inks option for lithium project in Chile

Monumental Minerals (TSXV: MNRL) has signed a deal with Lithium Chile (TSXV: LITH; US-OTC: LTMCF) to have the option to acquire up to 75% of the Salar De Laguna Blanca project in northeastern Chile.

Under the deal, Monumental will have to pay $1.5 million and spend the same amount on exploring the Laguna project within three years. Lithium Chile will also hold 9.9% of Monumental's shares.

Once Monumental acquires a 75% interest in the project, both companies will execute a joint venture agreement to develop the property, the junior company said.

Monumental CEO Jamil Sader described Laguna Blanca as a "significant addition" to the company's portfolio that includes the early stage Jemi rare earth element project in Mexico. "Lithium is a required component in the manufacture of EV batteries, and it is projected that the supply simply will not be able to meet demand," said Sader.

Monumental Minerals' Jemi project in Coahuila state, Mexico. Credit: Monumental Minerals.

But the project isn't just about lithium, the CEO said, adding that cesium is a big part of the story at Laguna Blanca.

"The surface sediments contain up to 692 ppm cesium. As far as we've been able to determine, no other sedimentary cesium deposit has been identified... almost the entire global cesium supply comes from the Tanco mine in Manitoba," Sader said. "The company that owns the mine is a private Chinese entity, which ships 100% of the ore to China for processing."

Political risk

Recent proposals in Chile's mining sector, which include a new plan to open the door to the nationalization of some significant copper and lithium mines and talks of stricter environmental and social regulations, have put international miners in Chile on the edge. Sader, though, doesn't expect his company's latest acquisition to be impacted.

"There have been talks about nationalization. But Chile has been through this before, and I don't think it is a road that the population ultimately wants to go down again," he said. "The risk appears to be low for Chile, which is an investor-stable jurisdiction. Even in Peru, politicians that talked about nationalizing mining have since backed off that narrative."

He further said that the company was "ahead of the curve on Laguna Blanca," and that its partner Lithium Chile had already conducted local community engagement and outreach and are also exploring direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology, which minimizes freshwater use, reduces land use, and produces less greenhouse gas emissions.

Located at a zone within the central Andes high desert, which according to the company contains more than half of the world's lithium supply beneath the many salt flats known as salars, the early exploration stage Laguna property covers 5,200 hectares.

Preliminary reconnaissance and geochemical surveys covering the bulk of the laguna complex were conducted between 2018 and 2021 by Lithium Chile. Assays of water samples taken from surface lagunas and subsurface that were 0.5 to 1.3 metres deep ranged from 780 to 1230 mg/l lithium and 20 to 40 mg/l cesium.

Assays from sediment samples ranged from 250 to 1450 ppm lithium and 75 to 692 ppm cesium.

At presstime in Toronto, Monumental was trading at 45 ? per share, up 3.5 ? or 8.5%, within a 52-week trading range of 27 ? and 79 ?. The company has 21 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of $10.5 million.