LONDON (Alliance News) - Bacanora Minerals Ltd and Rare Earth Minerals PLC Tuesday said they have mobilised a second drilling rig to the Sonora lithium project in Mexico to speed up its drilling programme following on from the pair signing a landmark deal with US-based Tesla Motors last week.
In separate statements, the pair said the second rig has been mobilised to increase the speed of drilling which will result in the remaining nine holes that are left to be drilled on the project being completed before the end of September.
Both companies said the second rig was mobilised following on from the deal signed with Tesla last week, whereby Tesla will buy lithium hydroxide to feed the manufacturing of batteries at its planned "Gigafactory" in Nevada which will produce energy storage products and electric vehicles.
Timing is important as the Sonora project must race to meet Tesla's schedule over the next few years in order to retain the deal.
In terms of drilling, nine of the 18 planned holes have been drilled under the current campaign, and the pair have received analysis from the first four holes from the Fleur concession.
The results from those four holes showed an weighted averages of lithium content in the Upper Clay section of 1,862 parts per million lithium over 24.1 metres in thickness, whilst the Lower Clay area averaged 4,871 parts per million lithium over 24.1 metres.
Hole ES-44 produced an Upper Clay result of 2,127 parts per million lithium over 31.0 metres and a Lower Clay result of 5,032 parts per million lithium over 15.5 metres. Hole ES-45 only tested the Lower Clay and yielded results of 4,503 parts per million lithium over 14.1 metres.
Hole ES-46 produced results in the Upper Clay of 1,918 parts per million lithium over 24.7 metres and the Lower Clay came in at 4,605 parts per million over 16.0 metres. Hole ES-47 tested the Upper Clay at 1,287 parts per million lithium over 16.7 metres and the Lower Clay presented results of 5,145 parts per million lithium over 25.5 metres.
The drilling programme is expected to lead to an updated mineral resource for the project. Once the programme is finished and the updated resource secured, the pair will initially focus on the higher grade, open pit resources on the La Ventana and Fleur concessions.
That will all be part of the pre-feasibility study for the project which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016.
Currently, the Sonora project has an indicated resource of 1.1 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent contained in 95 million tonnes of clay at a grade of 2,200 parts per million alongside an inferred resource of 6.3 million tonnes of lithium in 500 million tonnes of clay at a grade of 2,300 parts per million.
Bacanora owns all of the La Ventana lithium concession at Sonora, and owns 70% of the El Sauz and Fleur concessions and 70% of the Megalit concession. Rare Earth Minerals owns the other 30% of the El Sauz and Fleur concessions and the rest of the Megalit concession, which surrounds the other concessions. Rare Earth Minerals also holds a 16.4% stake in Bacanora itself.
Bacanora shares were up 4.3% to 90.75 pence per share on Tuesday morning whilst Rare Earth shares were up 3.8% to 1.10 pence per share.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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