PUR continues drilling at lithium project in Argentina
Our Investment Pursuit Minerals (ASX: PUR) just started drilling the next hole at its lithium project in Argentina.
PUR's project already has a 1.26Mt Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) JORC resource...
AND a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) showing a US$364M Net Present Value (NPV) for a planned 5,000tpa lithium operation.
(PUR is also nearing completion of PFS addendums looking at expanding production beyond 5,000tpa and a lithium chloride product - due shortly.)
Today PUR confirmed drilling is underway on the 4th hole at the project, on the Demasía ground it picked up recently around the salt lake.
(source)
This hole is planned to ~500m and will drill between the completed hole to the north and the two original holes to the south (where the current resource sits).
The early assays from that northern hole were strong, hitting 809mg/L lithium at ~400m depth.
That is nearly DOUBLE the current resource grade of ~424mg/L lithium, we covered that result last week here.
Early packer testing at the new hole has already pulled brine from ~26m and ~58m depth:
(source)
(Whether that brine carries lithium, we won't know until the assays come back.)
IF this hole hits grades like the last one, then the case starts building for a much bigger, higher grade brine system across its ground.
Now we wait on the remaining results from the northern hole, and first results from this one.
PUR also has a gold project
Last week PUR said six initial drill holes have now been planned at its gold-silver project in Argentina, where maiden drilling is expected this month.
There is ongoing work and planning that is targeting a 2nd followup drill program already, looking to cover a much broader area.
The initial drilling will be targeting these 3 areas with known mineralised structures:
(source)
This is the project that sits on a similar geological setting, ~100km to the south of $182BN capped Newmont’s Cerro Negro, an 8million ounce gold mine.
We covered this project in our recent Deep Dive here: PUR also has a gold-silver asset that we like (also in Argentina)
What’s next for PUR?
🔄 Lithium asset (Drilling started early July)
PUR kicked off its drill program on this project recently.
We have been waiting for a hole to be put into this part of PUR’s project for a few years now so it will be interesting to see what comes from it.
We are hoping to see PUR hit grades similar to what its Canadian peer did when it drilled on the edges of the salt lake (up to 925m/li).
~2 weeks ago PUR received some early assays, which included a sample of 809mg/L lithium across ~5m at ~400m depth. (source)
Today PUR confirmed drilling has started at hole number 4, in between the recently completed hole and the existing resource:
🔲 Drilling at PUR’s gold-silver project in Argentina
PUR also owns 100% of an earlier stage gold-silver project in Argentina.
On that project PUR is hunting an 8M ounce "Cerro Negro lookalike" gold discovery.
Cerro Negro is the 8 million ounce mine owned by US$112BN capped Newmont, ~100km north of PUR's ground.
Recently on that project ~55% of priority mapping was complete and an IP survey was underway to define targets - with maiden drilling to follow "in the near term". (source)
Recently PUR confirmed that this mapping and field work had been completed with drilling expected in September (source)
See why we like that project from the acquisition in a Deep Dive here: PUR: Acquires Gold Project in Argentina - Gold price smashing records
