Companies like Tesla have fuelled the frenzy over lithium in the natural resources sector as consumers demand increased functionality and development of lithium-based products leading to rapid growth opportunities for certain mining and exploration companies and operations. International Mining Project News is full of such project details. Contact emma@ im-mining.com for details.
Companies in focus with expanded operations, advanced developments and news of note in the markets include Nevada Energy Metals, Chemical & Mining Co. of Chile, Albemarle Corp, Lithium X Energy and Galaxy Resources.
Nevada Energy Metals has increased the exploration potential of the San Emidio property by adding 69 additional claims to its land position. The property now includes 155 claims (some 1,255 ha) in the San Emidio Desert, Washoe County, Nevada, 95 km northeast of Reno. The additional claims were staked to cover a portion of the playa evaluated in 1976 by Chevron Oil Co (Phoenix Geophysics report by Bruce S. Bell) for its geothermal power potential. The report states, “Almost the entire survey area exhibits definite anomalous responses which have a true resistivity less than three ohm meters. The apparent resistivity data exhibits near horizontal contours throughout parts of the anomalous area, but there is also sufficient lateral variations within each anomaly to suggest that the conductive zone is not due entirely to conductive sediments.” Drilling will be required to determine if the responses identifies in the resistivity survey confirm the presence of brine aquifers. Importantly, historical results by previous operators exploring the playa for lithium reported lithium value in sediments up to 312 ppm and up to 80 ppm lithium in brine from a depth of 1.5 m.
The San Emidio Desert basin is an alkali playa environment underlain by unconsolidated sediments and clays being fed by lithium bearing geothermal fluids reported in bounding faults, and/or faults along the east side of the basin. Since mid-Tertiary time, the rocks on the eastern edge of the San Emidio Desert have undergone extensive hydrothermal alteration and the presence of near-surface thermal fluids, suggest that the thermal fluids represent deep circulation of meteoric water. The property adjoins the Empire geothermal power plant with production of 4.6 MW of electricity from a 155°C resource thereby providing a substantial heat source for the circulation of meteoric groundwater believed important in the formation of Lithium brine deposits as found at Clayton Valley, Nevada host to North America’s pre-eminent lithium brine production.
Albemarle President and Chief Executive Officer Luke Kissam will present at the Goldman Sachs Basic Materials Conference in New York, NY on Wednesday, May 18, 2016. The format will include a Fireside Chat, and the remainder of the day will consist of one-on-one meetings. In addition to Kissam, Scott Tozier, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Matt Juneau, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations, and Sharon McGee, Vice President, Corporate Development, will be in attendance.
Lithium X Energy has completed its acquisition of an initial 50% interest in Potasio y Litio de Argentina SA, which owns 100% of the Sal de los Angeles lithium-potash brine project (Sal de los Angeles) in Argentina from Aberdeen International. The Sal de los Angeles project covers more than 95% of the Salar de Diablillos property located in Salta province at an average elevation of approximately 4,050 m above sea level. The project includes 32 mining claims covering about 8,156 ha and is located near FMC Corp.’s Salar de Hombre Muerto lithium deposit, one of the world’s largest lithium operations.
Galaxy Resources, a lithium-focused resources company, explores and produces lithium carbonate mineral properties. The company’s flagship project is the Sal de Vida lithium project in Argentina. It also owns interests in the Mt Cattlin Spodumene mine in Western Australia; and the James Bay lithium pegmatite project in Quebec, Canada.
Meanwhile in additional lithium news: As Tesla begins ramping up production of its seven kilowatt wall-mountable in-home battery this year, it expects to exceed the sales of the entire energy storage system market last year. Tesla is expected sell 168.5 MWh of energy storage systems to America’s leading residential solar system installer, SolarCity, this year according to an SEC filing. That’s 60% larger than the entire 2015 US behind-the-meter market and more than six times what Tesla sold to SolarCity last year, according to a note by GTM Research.
