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Pursuit Minerals Ltd (ASX: PUR) (“PUR”, “Pursuit” or the “Company”) is pleased to present its activities report for the quarterly period ended 30 June 2024.
Highlights
- Completion of Drill Hole 1 with outstanding results including multiple intercepts above 600mg/L Li.
- Commencement of Drill Hole 2 at as part of the Stage 1 Drill Program at RGS.
- Successful oversubscribed capital raising of $2.4 million AUD completed.
- $2.024 million in cash and equivalents available at quarter end.
- Commencement of production at 250t Pilot Plant to produce first Lithium Carbonate in H2, 2024.
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
During the June 2024 quarter, Pursuit Minerals Ltd (“Pursuit” or “Company”) has continued to advance through numerous engineering and geological workstreams, permitting approval processes and stakeholder engagement activities at our flagship Rio Grande Sur Lithium Project in the Salta province of Argentina.
Rio Grande Sur (RGS) Lithium Project Argentina
The Rio Grande Sur Project comprises of 5 tenements prospective for lithium on the Rio Grande Salar in the Salta province of Argentina, in addition to a Lithium Carbonate Pilot Plant located in the city of Salta. The five tenements cover approximately 9,233 hectares (Table 1).
Figure 1: Rio Grande Sur Tenement Map
Figure 2: RGS Project location in the ‘Lithium Triangle’ Region
Rio Grande Sur Stage 1 Drilling Campaign.
During the quarter, Pursuit announced the completion of Drill Hole 1 / DDH-1 at the Maria Magdelena tenement with substantial high-grade lithium assays achieved (see ASX announcement dated 29 May 2024).
DDH-1 achieved a depth of 560m, with Pursuit’s on-site geologists and drilling team having been extremely encouraged by the geological units encountered across the depths of the hole.
Of particular interest, at a depth of approximately 100-130m, was a highly porous sandy unit that was encountered with Lithium brine grades substantially above expectation, based on historical drilling results. This zone has been earmarked as the potential location of a pumping well due to its heightened porosity and average grade of 620mg/L. As drilling continued to depth, DDH-1 continued to deliver exceptional grades averaging above 600mg/L and the presence of good quality, porous and permeable sands.
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This article includes content from Pursuit Minerals, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
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Overview
Pursuit Minerals Ltd. (ASX:PUR) is a top-tier lithium exploration and development company. The company is focused on its flagship Rio Grande Sur lithium project in the Salta Province of Argentina. The project is strategically located in an area known as the Lithium Triangle which hosts 50 percent of the global lithium resources and 40 percent of the current global lithium production. Argentina is the world’s third largest producer of lithium, behind Australia and Chile.
The project spans an area of 9,260 hectares on the Rio Grande Salar and is adjacent to several operating lithium mines and development operations, including Acradium Lithium’s Fenix lithium mine and the Olaroz lithium mine. The Rio Grande Salar holds a historical Ni 43-101 resource declared by LSC Lithium, formerly listed on the TSX prior to being acquired by Plus Petrol of 2.1 million tons (Mt) of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) with an average grade of 370 milligrams per litre (mg/L). This resource was mostly obtained from shallow drilling to 100 metres.
Pursuit delivered a maiden JORC Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 251.3 kt LCE at 351 mg/L at the Rio Grande Sur project. The inferred resource relies on recent geophysical surveys and historical drilling, encompassing only a small portion of the known mineralization. Notably, excluding the highly promising Mito tenement from the current MRE highlights the unexplored potential for further resource expansion.
Pursuit has commenced its Stage 1 maiden drill program focused on upgrading the inferred resource. The drilling is anticipated to reach depths of 500 to 600 metres below surface, significantly deeper than the existing defined JORC mineral resource depth. Other companies in the region have obtained impressive results and grades of 900 mg/Li+ at depths of 500 metres, some of the highest known grades in Argentina. Pursuit expects a material resource upgrade in the second half of 2024 which will build on the inferred maiden resource.
Drill cores and packer lithium brine samples from Pursuit’s Stage 1 drilling program at the Rio Grande Sur Project.
In addition to having an attractive lithium resource, Pursuit is focused on the production of lithium carbonate to meet the supply side response to growing lithium demand. Recently, the company announced the first phase of operations of its 250 tons per annum (tpa) pilot plant to produce lithium carbonate. The plant will generate both technical and battery grade lithium carbonate at a purity of 99.95 percent, employing a conventional evaporation process.
Pursuit has submitted advanced environmental permits for the construction of the 250 tpa evaporation ponds and Stage 2 drill program at the northern tenement of the Rio Grande Sur project.
The establishment of the ponds is expected to take place in the latter part of 2024, pending environmental approvals. The ponds and the plant are planned to be situated on the Sal Rio 02 tenement enabling the possibility of initiating the first production of lithium carbonate on-site in 2025.
Pursuit is targeting continuous production at Rio Grande Salar and expects the current setup to be scalable to produce 15,000 to 20,000tpa of technical and battery grade lithium carbonate.
250-ton lithium carbonate pilot plant
The company’s focus on Argentina has several advantages. The new government, led by its president Javier Milei has signaled a market-friendly and pro-business policy shift. This should be a positive development for lithium miners given that Argentina has one of the largest lithium reserves in the world. Argentina holds 21 percent of the world’s 105 million tons of lithium resources, second only to Bolivia, according to the United States Geological Survey’s Lithium Statistics and Information 2024 report.
Lithium is in great demand driven by the growth in electric vehicles (EVs). Bloomberg NEF estimates lithium demand to jump by 225 percent to 2.6 Mt of LCE by 2030, translating into a CAGR of 16 percent. In a net-zero scenario, Bloomberg pegs the demand at 3.6 Mt of LCE by 2030, a CAGR of 19 percent.
The company remains focused on project execution that will deliver long-term shareholder value, including the completion of stage 1 drilling, JORC resource upgrade, first production of lithium carbonate and increasing production capacity to 250 tpa, and receipt of environmental permits, all within the first half of 2024.
In addition, Pursuit has identified the following catalysts over the next 12 months:
- Q3/Q4 2024: start of evaporation pond construction at Rio Grande, off-take agreement, relocation of 250 tpa pilot plant to Rio Grande.
- Q4 2024/Q1 2025: Detailed mineral resource study for commercial scale lithium carbonate operation; stage 2 drilling and JORC resource upgrade; first production from 250 tpa plant could commence as early as Q4 of 2025.
Company Highlights
- Pursuit Minerals is an ASX-listed company focused on advancing a pre-production lithium brine operation in Argentina.
- The company’s flagship Rio Grande Sur project covers 9,233 hectares on the Rio Grande Salar, in the Salta Province of Argentina located in the Lithium Triangle. The region is home to 50 percent of global lithium resources and 40 percent of world production.
- The acreage owned by Pursuit is situated within an Ni 43-101 inferred resource of 2.1 million metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), with an average grade of 370 milligrams per litre (mg/L) extending to a depth of 100 metres.
- Pursuit delivered a maiden JORC Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 251.3 kt LCE at 351 mg/L at the Rio Grande Sur Project. With its current Stage 1 drilling program currently underway, Pursuit is targeting a material resource upgrade in the second quarter of 2024, which will build on the recent inferred maiden resource.
- The company has commenced the first phase of operations to produce lithium carbonate at its recently commissioned pilot plant, which is expected to achieve an operational capacity of 250 tons per annum (tpa). This is a significant milestone in the journey to advance toward the first production at Rio Grande Sur.
- Despite temporary fluctuations in lithium carbonate prices, the market continues to demonstrate resilience, with long-term projections indicating a significant 225 percent surge to reach 2.6 million tons of LCE worldwide by 2030.
Key Project
Rio Grande Sur Lithium Project
The Rio Grande Sur is the company’s flagship lithium project. The project comprises five tenements that span 9,233 hectares and are located in Rio Grande Salar in Salta province, Argentina. The region has benefited from historical exploration that yielded an NI 43-101 resource of 2.19 Mt LCE @ 374 mg/L, at inferred category.
During Q4 2023, Pursuit announced a maiden JORC inferred mineral resource estimate of 251.3 kt LCE at 351 mg/L at the Rio Grande Sur project. Following this, Pursuit is currently undertaking a maiden drill program to upgrade the inferred resource. Stage 1 of the drill program will comprise four diamond drill holes on the southern tenements. The first two holes will be drilled at the Sal Rio II and Maria Magdelena tenements.
The drilling is anticipated to reach depths of 500 to 600 metres below surface, significantly deeper than the existing defined JORC mineral resource depth. The drilling commenced in Q1 2024, and Pursuit is targeting a material resource upgrade in the second quarter of 2024. Further drilling is expected following the completion of the Stage 1 program. The Stage 2 drilling program is anticipated to occur in the second half of 2024, after which Pursuit is targeting a feasibility study.
Management Team
Aaron Revelle – Chief Executive Officer
Aaron Revelle is a seasoned mining executive with experience in founding and developing natural resources companies. He has over 15 years of experience across a wide range of commodities and bringing them from deposits into production. He was the founder of Trilogy Minerals, which was acquired by Pursuit, and Centaur Resources, which focused on its flagship Pastos Grandes lithium project and was sold to Arena Minerals, and subsequently sold to Lithium Americas for over AU$300 million.
Peter Wall - Chairman
Peter Wall is a partner with Steinepreis Paganin, a leading law firm, and has rich experience in M&A, takeovers, recapitalizations, and reconstructions. He has significant expertise in various domains such as energy, resources, capital markets, and strategy. He is also the chairman of Minbos Resources.
Tom Eadie – Non-Executive Director
Tom Eadie is a director on the company board. He has over four decades of rich experience in the resource industry. Currently, he is the chairman of Alderan Resources and Southern Cross Gold. He was also the founding chairman of Syrah Resources.
Vito Interlandi – Company Secretary
Vito Interlandi is the managing partner at Nexia Melbourne and is responsible for corporate advisory. He has two decades of experience in finance, accounting, and capital markets and has served on the boards of several public and private companies.
This profile was written in collaboration with Couloir Capital.
Quarterly Activities Report – to 30 June 2024
Corporate
- Tanya Newby commenced as Company CFO and Joint Company Secretary1 on 27 May 2024. Tanya is a highly experienced finance executive with a broad background in the resources sector. Consistent with the strategy set by the board, Tanya’s appointment reflects the increased commercial and financial demands on the Company as it rapidly advances the Company’s portfolio of high quality critical and precious minerals on their exploration and development pathways.
- The Company’s cash balance at the end of the Quarter was $17.35 million (Q3 17.86 million), following net outflows of $510k, which included $601K spent on exploration, metallurgical test work and project studies, offset by net Canadian gains of $92K (tax benefits offset by small FX adjustment). All staffing, consultant and administration costs were completely offset by interest earned on fixed term deposits of $314K. Please see details in the Appendix 5b.
Exploration & Project Development
Canadian Projects:
Lac Carheil Graphite – Critical Minerals Project, Quebec, Canada:
Development of Critical & Strategic Minerals 2020-20252. During the Quarter considerable effort was applied to increasing the Company’s profile with government agencies and stakeholders. The project name was changed to Lac Carheil to better reflect its proximity to the major water feature of the same name and to avoid confusion among stakeholders. Various engagements, including consultations, led directly to the submission of an exploration impact assessment for the planned drilling program, consistent with the government’s new regulatory requirements. The Company awaits approval for the program. The Company entered into a series of agreements and launched six work programs, all required as part of our prefeasibility assessment (PFS)3. Major work agreed, underway or planned, included:
- Metallurgical & Laboratory Services – The appointments of SGS Laboratories in Lakefield, Ontario and a specialist client advisor to oversee metallurgical test-work programs associated with the PFS. Test work is advancing with results informing the PFS design team.
- Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) – Lycopodium Minerals, Canada have commenced design for a 100,000 tonnes per annum flake-graphite concentrate plant, building on the 2021 Scoping Study results4 that demonstrated Lac Carheils potential to generate high operating margins over an initial 14-year mine life - based on the current Mineral Resource alone.
- Downstream graphite purification processing assessment, plant location and Scoping Study to produce battery anode material. ANZAPLAN, a world-leading, German based, metallurgical test-work and process engineering design group will substantially advance on the outstanding results of previous downstream product test-work that produced battery grade (99.96% graphitic carbon (Cg)) spherical graphite (SpG) with excellent battery charging and discharge performance5.
- Drilling and full-service support contract signed with Magnor Exploration to complete the drilling and other exploration programs for Mineral Resource expansion and to test new regional targets at Lac Carheil, where the current Mineral Resource is contained within only 1km of a demonstrated 36km strike-length of high-grade graphitic trends6.
- Product marketing and pricing strategy – Lonestar Technical Minerals has been appointed to guide development of an overall marketing and pricing program for Lac Carheil graphite products.
- Social and stakeholder engagement services – An agreement has just commenced with Quebec based Transfert Environmental to assist with stakeholder engagement.
- Considerable progress was also made on the Mineral Resource estimation, mining, geotechnical, tailings and environmental scopes of work – which are all close to award, subject to a final drilling permit being awarded.
Figure 1: Lac Carheil Graphite Project: Resource Zone, High-grade sample sites, EM indicated graphitic trends
Corvette River Li, Au, Ag & Cu Project – Quebec, Canada
During the Quarter, the Company rapidly advanced planning, design and permitting for an extensive, phased, exploration program at Corvette River (see Figure 2). The aims of the exploration program are to follow up on promising Lithium bearing pegmatites, previously reported as the CR17 Pegmatite (adjacent to Patriot Battery Metals( ASX: PMT) CV9 discovery8,9) and the CS1 Pegmatite10, and historical field sampling with promising gold, silver and copper results11. The Company’s exploration permit, which includes trenching and drilling, was approved during the Quarter.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Metals Australia Ltd, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Red Mountain Lithium Discovery Bolstered with More Outstanding Thick Intersections
Key Highlights
- Multiple lithium intersections reported in assay results for the next four holes, RMRC004-007, with intersections up to +80m thickness, including:
- RMRC004: 83.8m @ 1,230ppm Li from 16.8m.
- RMRC005: 80.8m @ 1,270ppm Li from 56.4m
- RMRC006: 62.5m @ 1,070ppm Li from 6.1m and 70.1m @ 1,090ppm Li from 89.9m
- RMRC007: 74.7m @ 1,160ppm Li from 18.3m
- Intersections sit mid-project within 4.6km of strike length drilled to date at Red Mountain.
- Assay results for the remaining four drill holes expected in late July.
Assay results from the second batch of samples include the following drill intersections:
- RMRC004 : 13.7m @ 1,070ppm Li / 0.57% Lithium Carbonate Equivalent1 (LCE) from surface
- 83.8m @ 1,230ppm Li / 0.65% LCE from 16.8m
- RMRC005 : 26.0m @ 656ppm Li / 0.35% LCE from 3.0m
- 80.8m @ 1,270ppm Li / 0.68% LCE from 56.4m to End of Hole
- RMRC006 : 62.5m @ 1,070ppm Li / 0.57% LCE from 6.1m
- 15.3m @ 896ppm Li / 0.48% LCE from 71.6m 70.1m @ 1,090ppm Li / 0.58% LCE from 89.9m
- RMRC007 : 74.7m @ 1,160ppm Li / 0.61% LCE from 18.3m
- 25.9m @ 1,580ppm Li / 0.84% LCE from 115.8m
This second batch of assays, from drill holes located centrally within the group drilled so far (Figure 1), demonstrate thicker intersections than those previously announced, with all four holes intersecting +70m zones grading over 1,000ppm lithium. These outstanding results indicate the scale and grade potential at Red Mountain, as it continues to emerge as a project of significance in North America. Assays for the final four holes from the campaign are expected to be received later this month, which, along with other results, will allow the Company to determine the next steps at this highly prospective Project.
Astute Chairman, Tony Leibowitz, said:
“Our confidence in the scale and significance of this discovery continues to increase with each successful drill-hole at Red Mountain. Assays from the latest four holes have exceeded expectations and returned some very thick, high-grade intercepts which have confirmed robust lithium mineralisation in the middle of the project, between intersections from the discovery holes.
“With final assay results expected for the remaining four holes shortly, data from all holes will then be integrated into an updated geological model for Red Mountain with a view to expediting the process to achieving a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate.”
Figure 1. Drill-hole locations and intersections, and gridded soil sample geochemistry over aerial image.
About Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE)
Unlike spodumene concentrate, which is a feedstock for a value-added battery product, Lithium Carbonate is a principal lithium-ion battery product, which may be used directly in battery production or converted to other battery products such as lithium hydroxide. The Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Lithium Carbonate China Index priced lithium carbonate product at US$13,710/t6 as of 12 June 2024.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Astute Metals NL, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Pursuit Minerals Investor Kit
- Corporate info
- Insights
- Growth strategies
- Upcoming projects