ASX-listed Galan Lithium is consolidating its position in South America’s prolific “Lithium Triangle”, executing a binding option agreement with a private Argentinian landholder to earn a 100 percent interest in the Casa Del Inca III lithium brine tenement. The land package strategically abuts Galan’s Hombre Muerto West project. A further 900 hectares is also available under the agreement.
Galan says the land acquisition gives it greater Hombre Muerto West project development flexibility, providing more space for establishing brine ponds and infrastructure. Management says the land expansion aligns with the company’s ambition to fast track the project to production.
Galan Managing Director Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega said: “This strategic project acquisition by Galan consolidates its Hombre Muerto West project with an extension of the concessions from Catalina to Pata Pila and onwards to Casa del Inca III. This provides Galan with the opportunity to quickly build additional scale to its already significant brine resource and tenure in the region.”
The acquisition comes hot on the heels of the company’s preliminary testwork indicating its capacity to recover up to 25,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate equivalent annually at Hombre Muerto West.
The company previously reported preliminary pond design and evaporation testwork appeared to show a potential path to increased production with corresponding capital and operational cost benefits.
Stage one of the new pond plan will have the advantage of using the most favorable terrain and will minimise the upfront capital outlay per tonne of lithium carbonate equivalent produced, according to Galan. Later stage two development would increase the pond in a terrain with a higher level of incline.
In addition to the evaporation testwork, independent consultant Ad-Infinitium was employed to conduct laboratory testwork on Galan’s proposed lithium extraction process. The company said early indicators suggested a product purity of 99.88% lithium carbonate equivalent could be achieved from brine lithium produced at Hombre Muerto West – above the minimum battery-grade quality of more than 99.5%.
According to Galan, the testwork also delivered impressive results for the removal of contaminants such as sulphate, boron, calcium and magnesium, which are typically difficult to eliminate.
The company’s Hombre Muerto West project is located in the renowned Lithium Triangle of South America. This triangle, covering northern Agentina, Chile and southern Bolivia, contains 58 per cent of the world’s known identified lithium resources in vast salt flats, or salars.
Geologically, Galan’s tenure is located within the world-class Salar del Hombre Muerto, home to Livent Corporation’s operating El Fenix project and Galaxay Resources and POSCP’s developing Sal de Vida project. The Hombre Muerto district is proven to host the highest-grade lithium with the lowest impurity levels in Argentina.
The Hombre Muerto West project boasts resources of about 2.3 million tonnes of lithium carbonate-equivalent at an average 946 milligrams per litre lithium and a “total inventory” of about 3Mt LCE at 858mg/l lithium.
Soaring global demand for lithium has seen the price of battery-grade lithium more than double in the past 12 months.
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By Matt Birney
