Neo Lithium Corp. announced an updated resource estimate for its 100% owned Tres Quebradas lithium brine project (“3Q Project”) in Catamarca Province. On the basis of this updated resource estimate, the 3Q Project deposit represents one of the largest and highest grade undeveloped lithium brine deposits in the world.
“With our second highly successful drilling campaign now completed, we have demonstrated that the 3Q Project is one of the largest lithium brine discoveries of recent times,” said Dr. Perez, President and CEO of Neo Lithium. “The Measured and Indicated Resource estimate increased 227% from the maiden resource, confirming even more clearly the significant potential that we envisioned for this project.”
| Lithium Carbonate (Tonnes) | Litihum Grade (mg/L) | |
| Measured and Indicated Resources | 4,005,000 | 614 |
| Inferred Resources | 2,917,000 | 584 |
“This expanded resource has a very strong positive impact on the current engineering program we are developing at the project,” said Gabriel Pindar, COO of Neo Lithium. “We will evaluate the potential for production expansion, since the mine plan defined in the preliminary economic assessment on the project (the “PEA”), announced on October 31, 2017, at 35,000 tonnes per year represents only 17% of the total measured and indicated resource.”
The Company has not yet completed an economic study of the 3Q Project taking the new larger mineral resource estimate into account. Given that the Company does not expect mineral extraction methods to change as a result of the increased mineral resource estimates and the grade and location of the resource remains substantially the same, the Company believes that the PEA is still relevant as a preliminary indication of the economic potential of the 3Q Project.
The resource calculation is based on two seasons of drilling completing 9,334m (6,208m of diamond drill and 3,126m of rotary holes) divided in 48 drill holes. The deepest hole was 647m. The diamond drill holes had core recovered in HQ triple tube. Of the 48 holes used for the resource analysis, only nine reached the basement at depths ranging from 50m (in the boundary of the salar) to 647m. All others were terminated after reaching target depth or due to drill limitations. The total thickness of the basin exceeds 650m on the eastern side, and brine saturated sediments are found along the whole sequence.
