ARGENTINA -
International Lithium announced that its Mariana lithium project has been estimated to contain 4.4 million tonnes of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) equivalent in the measured and indicated category, an increase of 253% over the 2017 estimate of 1.2 million tonnes in the indicated category.
In a press release, the miner also said that the project hosts 49.7 million tonnes of potash-equivalent in the measured and indicated category and an additional 786,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate and 9.3 million tonnes of potassium chloride (KCl) in the inferred category.
“The weight of contained lithium within the measured and indicated resources represents a 253% increase over the 2017 mineral resource estimate, and the contained lithium within the inferred resources represents a 32% increase over the 2017 figures,” the media brief states.
The resource update was issued after International Lithium received a technical report from its strategic partner,
Ganfeng Lithium.
Ganfeng has managed Mariana for the last three years. The company has been experimenting with the optimum process methodology for the project, which now looks likely to be based on solvent extraction.
Previously Ganfeng had favoured concentrating brine through natural solar evaporation and shipping the concentrated brine to China, but this method has now been ruled out.
The selective membrane technology approach was considered as well but is also now unlikely to be adopted.
The Mariana project consists of a lithium brine deposit located in Salta in northwestern Argentina. It sits on the Llullaillaco salt flat, which is less than 140 km south of the Atacama salt flat in Chile, the largest producing lithium brine deposit in the world.
This story originally appeared on www.Mining.com.
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