PUR kicks off 2nd drillhole at lithium project

Pursuit Minerals (ASX: PUR) is now drilling its second hole at its lithium brine project in Argentina.

We averaged down into PUR in the June cap raise at 0.3c.

For us PUR is one of the companies in our portfolio where we are happy to average down and hold through the lithium bear market.

In the meantime, we want to see PUR upgrade its JORC resource off the back of its current drill program.

PUR’s project is located inside South America’s ‘lithium triangle’ and has a 251.3kt lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) JORC resource.

The resource is based on shallow historical holes down to ~200m in depth.

PUR is running its first round of drilling on its project looking for extensions to its resource down to depths of ~500m to 600m.

PUR has already put out results from its first hole and confirmed lithium brines down to depths of ~560m with grades well above its current resource.

Today, PUR kicked off its second hole looking to do the same, but on a different part of the companies project:

PUR’s current drill program is for four exploration drillholes down to ~500m-600m depths.

After the four holes are drilled, PUR is planning to drill ONE pumping well to determine flow rates for the project.

The whole premise of the program is to test “conductivity highs” found in previous geophysical surveys where PUR will be hoping to hit more lithium brines.

AND fingers crossed higher grade lithium.

Here is what it looks like for the hole PUR is drilling right now:

How today’s news relates to our PUR Investment Memo:

One of the key reasons we Invested in PUR was because of the exploration upside.

With a lot of the historic drilling limited to depths of ~150-200m, our view was that PUR could expand on what is already known by drilling a few deeper holes into its ground.

With the company’s first exploration program we are looking forward to this theory being proven correct.

Exploration upside
Most of the drilling in the Rio Grande salar (salt lake) has been down to depths of ~100m. Lithium mineralisation is interpreted to extend down to depths of ~500m in depth leaving plenty of exploration upside for PUR to chase.

Source: “Reasons We Invested” Section - PUR Investment Memo 14 Dec 2022

What’s next for PUR?

Phase 1 drill program 🔄

PUR is currently drilling the 2nd hole of a four hole exploration program.

We expect to see newsflow from the drilling through to the end of this year.

Pilot plant commissioning 🔄

While the company’s drill program continues, PUR is also looking to bring its 250tpa pilot plant into production.

PUR is currently working on the environmental permitting required for evaporation ponds to be built on its project.