PR30 Jun 2021 12:47
MEXICO CITY, June 29 (Reuters) – Unusually high lithium concentrations have been found in a deposit being developed by Mexico's top prospector of the white metal, the head of the country's national geological service said, while underlining the challenges to extracting it.
National Geological Service Director Flor de Maria Harp said late on Monday that the average amount of lithium found in samples reported by Bacanora Lithium , or about 3,415 parts per million (ppm), exceed typical concentrations found elsewhere in Mexico's mostly clay-based lithium deposits.
Her comments represented some of the first independent backing for Bacanora's claims about the concentrations.
"Bacanora is really a very good deposit," she said, adding that the service she runs has seen another ore sample from the same project that held some 16,000 ppm of lithium – a previously undisclosed number.
If achieved, this one project could catapult Mexico, which now has zero lithium output, to major producer status alongside Chile and Australia.
The demand for lithium, an ultralight metal used to make rechargeable batteries, is seen surging later this decade, driven in particular by carmakers which have pledged to ramp up production of electric vehicles.
Average lithium concentrations contained in clay-based deposits in Mexico range between 200 and 6,000 ppm, according to a technical report published by the geological service last year.
Harp nonetheless cautioned that geological and other risks associated with Bacanora's project remain "very, very high," including how the company will extract the mineral from the clay-based ore, which she said has not yet been achieved elsewhere on a commercial scale.
Bacanora Lithium holds four concessions in northern Sonora state, and for years has claimed to be closest among the roughly 30 active lithium concessions in Mexico to launching production, though it has several times pushed back its forecast.
The company's current outlook is that production will begin in 2023 and ramp up to 35,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate annually.
Bacanora's delays have not slowed bets on the company, which saw its London-listed shares surge last month after China's Ganfeng Lithium , a major battery maker, said it had agreed to buy the shares it did not already own. ...
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