CHILEAN EXPLORATION CONCESSIONS GRANTED – BELLAVISTA 1-5
Speciality Metals International Limited (ASX: SEI, Speciality Metals or the Company) is pleased to announce that an additional five (5) Exploration Concessions over a key area of Salar de Bellavista (Bellavista 1-5), have been granted by the Chilean Courts and the Company is currently in the process of arranging for the transfer of these exploration concessions into its wholly owned Chilean based subsidiary, Special Metals Chile.
These concessions cover a significant portion of the western part of Salar de Bellavista, in a situation tectonically analogous to, but north-west of, Salar de Atacama in Northern Chile, where two companies, Albemarle Corp and SQM S.A. produce a third of the world’s lithium from lithium brines. They are also well situated to existing infrastructure being close to the Pan American Highway and lithium processing infrastructure at the port of Antofagasta.
As previously announced, five (5) exploration concessions have already been granted in Salar de Miraje during 2016 and the Company has made application for a further fifteen (15) exploration concessions within Salar de Pintados with this application process now well advanced.
Speciality Metals has focused on salars geologically older but at a lower topographic elevation that the salars where lithium is produced by evaporation of brines pumped from the subsurface, anticipating that evaporation at the lower elevations will favour lower operating costs if SEI’s exploration for lithium brines in the salar is successful. Salar de Bellavista is at an elevation of ~1000m, at which elevation evaporation is expected to be year-round and faster than at Salar de Atacama (elevation ~2000m). Except for this difference, the salars that are the focus of SEI’s exploration are geologically similar to the salars already producing lithium or that are known to contain lithium resources. SEI’s target salars appear to be fed in part from hot springs and the evaporite minerals already produced from the target salars (nitrates and borates) indicate the typical salar closed hydrological basin dominated by evaporation. In addition, the host sediments within the target salars are identical to the sediments that host the lithium brines at higher altitudes, and consist of evaporative carbonate-dominated sediments.
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Summary map of Northern Chile, showing location of Salars de Miraje and Bellavista.
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