Infinity Lithium has secured a new 35-year lease on land that now expands the footprint of its San José project in Spain, following a new deal struck by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies.
The company says its second major acquisition of rights and access to land for the project is a milestone that provides long-term leasehold over 11 hectares adjacent to its already secured land. It has earmarked the areas for its lithium chemical conversion plant infrastructure and tailings impoundment facility (TSF).
The new lease has been structured in a multi-year option estimated to have a life-of-mine cost of about €700,000 (AU$1.2 million). It includes an initial option period with costs of €37,794 (AU$56,300) for 2 years and with a further option to extend.
The deal is estimated to be worth about €1718 (A$2560) per hectare per year.
Extremadura New Energies chief executive officer Ramón Jiménez said "The new land agreement is another major milestone for San José. Collaboration with major local stakeholders continues and we are pleased to have finalised a new agreement to secure rights to an essential land package for the project.”
The timely acquisition follows hard on the heels of the company’s exploitation concession application and lies within its granted exploration permit in Extramadura. All of the land sits inside an area ruled “urban compatible” by the local Cáceres Government. Cáceres is in the autonomous community of Extremadura and is the capital and most-populated municipality of the province.
Infinity’s new securing of rights and access rights follows its acquisition of data required as part of the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA). The work included geophysical surveys and sampling campaigns over areas proposed to be used for the TSF.
Additionally, the company acquired data from water bores put in by the private landowners, which enabled water depth measurements and sampling to update hydrogeological modelling.
Management says other recently-completed, project-related technical work has included lithium characterisation sampling programs, a water sampling campaign and hydrological studies on sources, reservoirs and springs in the project area, in addition to soil sampling to establish environmental and geochemical baseline values.
San José is proposed to be a fully-integrated mining and industrial project to produce battery-grade lithium products including lithium hydroxide from mica feedstock, which would become the European Union’s second-biggest JORC-compliant hard rock lithium project.
The EU has made it clear it wants 100 per cent of its car sales to feature zero-emissions by 2035. The EU’s current registered passenger car complement is a staggering 235 million vehicles – a 2022 figure that is 7 per cent up on 2017 numbers.
So, one could say that there is an assured market for Infinity’s product and it is perfectly located with a long land lease to help fill part of that colossal niche.
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By Doug Bright
