RE: Latest news17 Oct 2022 11:37
The Doncella lithium project is Hanacolla's flagship project located in the Arizaro Salar, in the Salta province of NW Argentina; approximately 170km from Salta. The project consists of 725km2 of lithium salt brine style mineral tenements located within the Salar de Arizaro Basin. Arizaro is the largest salar in Argentina and one of the most important in Puna Region. The Puna constitutes the southern end of the high platform of the Central Andes, better known on a continental scale as the Altiplano, which develops closely related to the Cenozoic volcanic arc.
Salta is considered a prospective area within the "Lithium Triangle" according to the Fraser Institute. The "Lithium Triangle" is the stylized name from a geographic region circumscribed to the S. American meso-Andean plateau, on which three countries simultaneously have territory: Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, and owes its name to the lithium available in lithium brine-based deposits.
The Doncella project is a lithium in brine deposit. This type of project is characterized by being located in structural lows that form restricted basins that are mainly filled with halite, clay, silt, sand and gravel. Lithium rich brine is lodged in the pores of the deposited sediments. As the lithium remains dissolved in fluid form, it has the ability to move and mix with other adjacent fluids once extraction has begun. Exploration is focussed on developing lithium resources by gaining better understanding of the aquifers and the variations of the porosity and grades within them. As conducted by the previous owners to date, a total of 112 trench samples and 35 drill samples have been collected and have yielded lithium values between 100 and 247ppm, the average being between 150 and 160ppm.
Additionally, the General Belgrano railway between Salta and Antofagasta port passes over the Arizaro Salar very close to Hanacolla's tenements, offering favourable logistics supporting future exploitation and development. Hanacolla recently raised $9.2m in new equity valuing the entirety of the business at $92m and funding the ongoing exploration and development programme