Grounded Lithium Corp (TSX-V: GRD) has approved a C$4.5 million ($4.9 million) budget to develop the Kindersley Lithium Project in collaboration with Denison Mines (TSX:DML) through to June 2025.
Grounded Lithium says the budget reflects the estimated costs associated with the next stage of technical de-risking of the project expected to conclude with the completion and filing of a Prefeasibility Study (PFS) for a commercial battery grade lithium operation.
As part of the earn-in agreement entered into with Denison in January this year, the full cost of the budget will be funded by Denison and comprises further delineation of the resource base through additional drilling and sampling of multiple reservoir layers within the Leduc/Duperow sequence.
The majority of the budget’s cost supports the geological and engineering activities that advance the commercial potential of the Kindersley Lithium Project.
Denison and Grounded Lithium have started a request for proposal process with engineering service firms to author an independent PFS in accordance with National Instrument 43-101.
As part of the process, candidates recommended the completion of extensive metallurgical lab pilot test work to facilitate a comparison between several different extraction technologies as a necessary step to complete a PFS.
Based on this process and the recommendations contained within the PFS, a future field pilot test may be designed, constructed, and operated for a sufficient period of time to support the further advancement of the project.
Denison holds an option to earn a working interest in the Kindersley Lithium Project by sole funding expenditures. Should Denison fund C$2.2 million of project expenditures, it will have fulfilled its phase-one conditions and earned a 30% interest.
Phase one of the Kindersley Lithium Project reportedly has an after-tax net present value, using a discount rate of 8%, of US$1 billion with an after-tax internal rate of return of 48.5%.
In order to complete phase two, Denison is required to remit a cash payment of C$850,000 to the company.
Grounded Lithium Corp is a lithium brine exploration and development company that controls some 1 million tonnes of measured and indicated lithium carbonate equivalent mineral resource and 3.2Mt of inferred lithium carbonate equivalent in southwest Saskatchewan.
The company’s multi-faceted business model involves the consolidation, delineation, exploitation and ultimately development of its opportunity base to build a “best-in-class, environmentally responsible, Canadian lithium producer”.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Grounded Lithium
