Alpha Lithium Corporation, Vancouver, Canada, (TSX.V: ALLI) (OTC: ALLIF) (Frankfurt: 2P62), sole owner of one of the last large, undeveloped salars in Argentina’s Lithium Triangle, has added a second drilling rig, which will immediately move to start Phase Two of its three-phase drilling program on Alpha’s 100% owned, 27,500-hectare Tolillar Salar.
Adding a second drilling rig will accelerate the Company’s planned campaign by starting Phase Two before Phase One is complete. This, on one of the largest wholly-owned salars in Argentina. Previous drilling and sampling on the salar has established the presence of lithium across the tremendous aerial extent of the Tolillar Salar and the current drill program is an additional step towards the completion of a 43-101 Resource Estimate.
The second rig is scheduled to arrive directly from a recent drilling campaign on neighboring Hombre Muerto salar, where it successfully drilled numerous wellbores to similar depths under similar conditions. The Company was very pleased to take advantage of the low mobilization costs, as the Hombre Muerto salar is only 10 km away from the Tolillar Salar. Additionally, the experienced crew and rig do not need to struggle through a common “warm up” period to regain drilling efficiencies.
Phase Two drilling at Alpha’s Tolillar Salar is planned to explore depths up to 450 meters and have been identified on numerous Vertical Electrical Sounding “VES” surveys.
Brad Nichol, Chief Executive of Alpha Lithium, commented, “Last week we reported receipt of the drilling licenses for Phase Two and now we are thrilled to be adding a second rig and accelerating our development of the asset. Previous campaigns and tests have provided us with substantial comfort on the presence of lithium and the confidence to drill production-ready wells so that our internal lithium chemistry experts can begin the sampling and testing of different Direct Lithium Extraction (“DLE”) technologies on our exact brine. This should allow us to move very quickly into the production phase at the Tolillar Salar. To that end, we have made progress with several DLE technology companies and hope to have news of that progress in the future.”
Alpha recently added a renowned group of lithium chemistry experts to its team for the purpose of examining and evaluating different DLE techniques that have been shown to economically extract lithium at concentrations as low as 100 mg/L.
Qualified Person
Michael Rosko, MS, PG, of E. L. Montgomery and Associates (M&A) of Santiago, Chile, is a registered geologist (CPG) in Arizona, California and Texas, a registered member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME No. 4064687), and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Rosko has extensive experience in salar environments and has been a qualified person on many lithium brine projects. Mr. Rosko and M&A are completely independent of Alpha Lithium. Mr. Rosko has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content of this news release.
About Alpha Lithium
Alpha Lithium is a growing team of industry professionals and experienced stakeholders focused on the development of the Tolillar Salar. Together, we have assembled 100% ownership of what may be one of Argentina’s last undeveloped lithium salars, encompassing 27,500 hectares (67,954 acres), neighboring multi-billion-dollar lithium players in the heart of the renowned “Lithium Triangle”. Other companies in the area exploring for lithium brines or currently in production include Galaxy Lithium, Livent, and POSCO in Salar del Hombre Muerto; Orocobre in Salar Olaroz; Eramine SudAmerica S.A. in Salar de Centenario; and Gangfeng and Lithium Americas in Salar de Cauchari.
