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Latin Resources Limited (ASX: LRS) (“Latin” or “the Company”) is very pleased to announce the commencement of a resource definition drilling campaign at the newly named “Colina Prospect” at the Company’s Bananal Valley Project in Brazil.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The first hole of the new program (SADD016) has intersected a very wide, 27.78m pegmatite with a central core of over 21m logged with significant >20% spodumene. This intersection is notably wider than previous intersections in adjacent drillholes.
- A 25,000m systematic resource definition diamond drilling has commenced at the newly named “Colina Prospect” at the Company’s Bananal Project in Brazil, where previous drilling has returned thick high-grade lithium with results up to 3.22% Li2O.
- An initial three hole drill programme has also commenced at the Monte Alto Prospect.
Latin Resources’ Managing Director, Chris Gale, commented:
“The commencement of the resource definition drilling campaign our newly named Colina Prospect in the Bananal Valley Brazil, marks a significant milestone for the Company. The speed at which we have moved to resource definition drilling is a measure of the Company’s belief that we have made a significant new lithium discovery. Results have only continued to get better with more drilling, returning some exceptional grades from wider pegmatite zones.
“Our confidence has been further boosted with the completion of the first hole of the resource definition campaign intersecting a pegmatite which is over 27m thick, with a core of over 21m logged with a high abundance of spodumene. While this is early days in the large 25,000m campaign, the Company is committed to fast tracking the project toward the estimation of a maiden JORC Mineral Resource by the end of the year. We have boosted our technical team in Brazil to accommodate the increased drilling pace, with our Australian-based Exploration Manager currently on site in Brazil to help facilitate the ramp up in activity.
“We are also very pleased to be drilling at our second target area, the Monte Alto Prospect, with the scout drilling campaign well on the way.”
Colina Prospect – Resource Definition Drilling
Resource definition drilling campaign comprising an estimated 100 holes for 22,000 - 25,000m, has commenced at the Company’s newly named “Colina Prospect” (Figure 1), where previous first pass drilling has identified high-grade lithium pegmatites over a strike extent of 600-800m.
Figure 1: “Colina Prospect” Location map, Salinas Lithium Project, Brazil
The first hole of the campaign SADD0161 , has intersected a very wide 27.78 meters coarse grained fresh pegmatite, with geological logging identifying a core zone of 21.48 meters with a visual estimation of spodumene of over 20% (Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4 and Table 1). This intersection is notable wider than those in the holes SADD003 and SADD004 on section to the north which reported high-grade intersections of 17.05 meters and 17.38 meters respectively2 .
Figure 2: SADD016, 91.60 – 119.38m, 27.28m pegmatite with large fresh light green spodumene crystals throughout
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Overview
Latin Resources (ASX:LRS), an Australia-based mineral exploration company, is aiming to make a mark in global carbon reduction efforts through mineral projects that advance efforts toward net-zero emissions, and a corporate value that upholds the highest environmental, social and governance standards.
Lithium plays an important role in decarbonization goals, particularly for its application in lithium-ion batteries used for energy storage in renewable energy technologies. Demand for lithium continues to increase, with prices in 2022 reaching 430 percent higher year-on-year and expected to rise by 22 percent in 2026 due to shortages in raw materials. This rising demand is driven by the global energy transformation movement and provides significant opportunity for emerging new projects entering this space.
Latin Resources’ flagship Salinas Lithium Project is located 10 kilometers outside the town of Salinas, northeast of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The project’s Colina Lithium Deposit has a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate of 13.3 million tonnes (Mt) @ 1.2 percent lithium oxide (indicated and inferred).
Salinas is 80 kilometers away from Sigma Lithium’s (TSXV:SGML) Grota do Cirilo property, which is on track to becoming one of the world’s largest lithium producers. Sigma has a world-class lithium resource base of 85.7 Mt @ 1.43 percent lithium oxide, with an average production of 766 kilo-tonnes per annum (ktpa) and a 13-year mine life. Sigma’s latest definitive feasibility study shows an after-tax net present value (8 percent) of US$15.3 billion and internal rate of return of 1,273 percent.
Latin Resources’ trajectory, demonstrated by significant upside potential from its maiden resource estimate and exploration targets, paints a parallel picture to Sigma Lithium’s Grota do Cirilo project.
As of February 2023, Latin Resources has expanded its lithium ground position to more than 38,000 hectares, a 367 percent increase, after it recently secured a large package of new tenements in the highly prospective Bananal Valley district in eastern Brazil. Through a new option agreement, the company has also secured additional mining rights directly adjacent to the South of Colina, where drilling by the company has confirmed the extension of the Colina host lithologies and pegmatitic intrusive bodies (assay results pending). The company’s regional exploration team will be undertaking initial reconnaissance mapping and geochemical sampling over the new project tenements as part of its exploration strategy in the now-expanded Salinas district.
The company released the final assay results from the 2022 resource drilling at the Colina prospect, which confirmed the continuity of high-grade at depth and along strike. In January 2023, Latin Resources commenced a new 65,000-meter mineral resource expansion drill program at Salinas. The program will focus on fast-tracking the growth of the Colina indicated and inferred mineral resource, as well as define a mineral resource for the Colina West Prospect. More than 3,000 meters of the planned 65,000-meter drilling have been completed to date, with initial results confirming high-grade mineralization envelope. The Colina Exploration Target Range is 13.3 Mt to 22 Mt @ 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent lithium oxide.
SGS Geological Services, Canada is undertaking a preliminary economic assessment on the company’s Colina Prospect. Upon successful completion of the PEA, Latin Resources anticipates progressing directly to a definitive feasibility study.
SGS is also carrying out a metallurgical test work program at the Salinas Lithium project. Test work completed to date has demonstrated exceptional metallurgy with more than 80 percent recovery of lithium oxide, and extremely high-grade lithium oxide concentrate of up to 6.6 percent from simple heavy liquid separation. In a statement, the company’s head of exploration Tony Greenaway calls the results “extremely encouraging,” and notes that while they cannot be directly translated to an operational environment, the implications for marketability and the economics are significant.
The company plans to commission SGS to build a Dense Media Separation (DMS) pilot plant in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais and provide potential offtake customers with a representative lithium concentrate product.
The Company signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in March 2023 with the Minas Gerais State Economic Development Department (SEDE) and the Minas Gerais Integrated Development Institute (INDI) together referred to as Invest Minas. The purpose of the MoU is to provide mutual support between the parties to support the battery materials sector and supply chain investment in the region, including two-way introductions and investment partnerships in the region.
This partnership reinforces the existing cooperation between Latin and the State of Minas Gerais and assists with streamlining the approvals pathway for Latin to take the Colina Deposit through feasibility studies and into production provides significant opportunity for the development of both the project and the region.
The company’s Cloud Nine Halloysite-Kaolin Deposit near Merredin, Western Australia, presents an exciting opportunity as a globally significant kaolin-halloysite project located in Australia. Cloud Nine has the potential to be the largest undeveloped halloysite/ kaolin deposit in Australia, with an upgraded mineral resource estimate of 280 Mt of kaolinised granite, a 33 percent increase from the May 2021 global estimate of 207 Mt. The mineral resource contains 116 Mt of bright white kaolinite-bearing material in the indicated and inferred classifications.
Latin Resources has confirmed outstanding kaolin brightness results from the Cloud Nine infill drilling in 2022. Significant thicknesses of exceptionally bright kaolinised granite were intersected, highlighting the quality of the world class Cloud Nine Halloysite.
The company is now working to pursue potential offtake customers, which will include options to supply short-term products as well as value-added processed kaolin and halloysite products in the longer-term.
Latin Resources earlier signed an innovative $3.2 million research project with Australia’s Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE) to develop methane reduction technologies using the clay mineral halloysite from its Cloud Nine Halloysite-Kaolin Deposit. This project enables Latin Resources to mine halloysite while undertaking initiatives to address the global need to reduce emissions.
In Argentina, Latin Resources holds a joint venture agreement with Argentinian investment group Integra Capital on the Catamarca Lithium project in Argentina. Integra Capital has the option to acquire 50 percent interest in the Catamarca project on an investment of US$1 million. The Catamarca Lithium project is a high-grade lithium pegmatite project with the potential to host world-class deposits.
The company’s geological team recently conducted on-ground reconnaissance field work at the Catamarca project, which highlighted priority areas for the planned extended fieldwork campaign to include detailed and systematic geological mapping and follow-up geochemical surface sampling to better understand the scale of the high-grade lithium pegmatite system encountered during the company’s 2017 drilling program.
Latin Resources will embark on a community engagement campaign to provide the local community stakeholders with information on the planned recommencement of exploration work at Catamarca Lithium project. A network of liaison offices will be established to serve as an information resource and conduit for feedback for the communities pertaining to the project.
Latin Resources is committed to strengthening its environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials, and becoming a valuable supplier of the minerals needed to cut global emissions and support the green economy. Latin Resources is focused on ensuring that its operations positively impact the environment, the sustainability of the businesses and the products that it creates. The company has a goal to meet and exceed its ESG framework and is utilizing the Socialsuite platform to monitor and report on its ESG disclosure progress.
Company Highlights
- Latin Resources aims to become a contributor to global carbon reduction efforts through mineral projects that advance net-zero emissions goals, including lithium, halloysite, kaolin and copper.
- The company has increased its lithium ground position to more than 38,000 hectares for its Salinas Lithium Project in Brazil, after securing a large package of new tenements in the Bananal Valley district in eastern Brazil.
- Salinas’s Colina lithium deposit has a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate of 13.3 million tonnes (Mt) @ 1.2 percent lithium oxide (indicated and inferred).
- The company entered into a non-binding MoU with the Minas Gerais State Economic Development Department (SEDE) and the Minas Gerais Integrated Development Institute (INDI) together referred to as Invest Minas.
- The company’s Cloud Nine Halloysite-Kaolin Deposit in Western Australia has an upgraded mineral resource estimate of 280 Mt of kaolinised granite.
- The company has engaged in an innovative $3.2 million research project with CRC CARE for the development of methane reduction technologies using the clay mineral halloysite from Cloud Nine.
- Exploration field work at the Catamarca Lithium Project in Argentina has recommenced, and a community engagement campaign is underway.
- The company is committed to an ESG framework and supplying the green economy with the minerals needed to cut global emissions.
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Developing mineral projects to support the global decarbonization
Lithium Americas Shares Spike as Trump Admin Seeks Equity Stake
The request marks the latest instance of the Trump administration intervening directly in strategic sectors.
The White House has previously pursued similar arrangements with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), MP Materials (NYSE:MP) and other firms considered vital to national security. “President Trump supports this project. He wants it to succeed and also be fair to taxpayers,” a White House official told Reuters. “But there’s no such thing as free money.”
Located about 25 miles south of Nevada’s border with Oregon, Lithium Americas says Thacker Pass is set to become the western hemisphere’s largest lithium source once fully operational. Phase 1 is designed to produce 40,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year, enough for roughly 800,000 electric vehicles.
Full commercial output is scheduled for 2028, following the completion of the processing plant and mine infrastructure; construction is already underway, with more than 600 contractors on site.
The scale of production would dwarf current US lithium output. At present, the country produces fewer than 5,000 metric tons annually from Albemarle's (NYSE:ALB) Silver Peak facility in Nevada.
By contrast, global leaders Australia and Chile dominate mining, while China exerts outsized control over refining, processing more than 75 percent of the world’s lithium into battery-ready material.
The project was approved in the closing days of Trump’s initial term and received final financing under the Biden administration in 2024, when the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) closed the record US$2.26 billion loan.
General Motors (NYSE:GM), which invested US$625 million in Lithium Americas last year for a 38 percent stake, holds rights to purchase all of the mine’s Phase 1 lithium output and part of Phase 2 output for the next two decades.
Trump officials are now pressing for assurances that GM will uphold those commitments, and are also seeking to shift some project control away from the automaker and toward Washington, according to Reuters' sources.
For its part, Lithium Americas has stayed measured in its comments.
“We respect the LPO’s decision to pursue a restructure and remain in active discussions with the (Department of Energy) and our partner, GM, and will provide an update at the appropriate time,” the company said.
The reports of a potential government stake ignited trading activity. Shares of Lithium Americas jumped more than 90 percent in New York on Wednesday (September 24), climbing from about US$3 to as much as US$6.12.
Lithium Americas performance, September 19 to 24, 2025.
Chart via Google Finance.
GM shares also ticked higher, up about 2.5 percent in early trading.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Green Technology Metals: Delivering the Next Lithium Hub in North America
Green Technology Metals (ASX:GT1) is progressing Ontario’s first integrated lithium business, anchored by its Seymour, Root, and Junior projects, with plans to supply a proposed lithium hydroxide facility in Thunder Bay.
GT1 is leveraging Canadian policy support for critical minerals, with Ontario’s Building More Mines Act and federal programs. The company has secured conditional approval for C$5.5M from the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund (CMIF) for Seymour infrastructure, a C$100M financing LOI from Export Development Canada, and has pending applications with SIF/NRCan and CMIF Round 2, including C$5M tied to Root. These mechanisms help de-risk financing and advance development.
GT1’s three-phase strategy starts with Seymour production using a DMS concentrator, followed by construction of the Thunder Bay lithium hydroxide facility with EcoPro Innovation, and finally, development of Root as a larger, long-life mining hub feeding Thunder Bay.
Company Highlights
- Integrated strategy in Ontario: The Seymour and Root projects form the foundation for a vertically integrated lithium business, supported by a proposed lithium hydroxide plant in Thunder Bay, Ontario, with rail, port, power, gas and water access.
- Marketing and offtake secured: LG Energy Solution has a binding offtake for 25 percent of Seymour concentrate and has invested directly into the company, demonstrating strong downstream demand.
- Strategic process partner: EcoPro Innovation is co-developing the conversion facility. Pilot work has already produced battery-grade lithium hydroxide with high recoveries.
- Government backing: GT1 has secured conditional approval for significant funding programs, including C$5.5 million for road upgrades, a C$100 million project financing support LOI from EDC, and additional CMIF and SIF applications.
- Resource base: A combined inventory of over 30 Mt @ ~1.2 percent lithium oxide across Seymour and Root, providing both near-term production and long-life scale.
- By-product upside: Seymour hosts a significant rubidium resource in mica streams that could be recovered alongside lithium, creating an additional revenue line.
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