Toronto, Canada-based Lithium Ionic Corp (TSX-V:LTH) has struck a binding deal to acquire the remaining 15% of the Salinas properties in the Araçuaí Pegmatite District of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
To take full ownership of the properties, the company will pay the Brazilian Real equivalent of US$2 million by 7 June 2024, the Brazilian Real equivalent of US$1 million by 4 April 2025 and issue 2.5 million Lithium Ionic shares by 18 June 2024.
Lithium Ionic, which has a market capitalisation of C$120.3 million ($132.6 million), picked up an initial 40% stake in the properties in March last year via the acquisition of Neolit Minerals Participações Ltda.
Neolit Minerals has since increased its interest to 85% by meeting its exploration commitments.
The company undertook seven months of drilling between May and November 2023 on one of the nine tenements that resulted in the definition of a NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate of 14.8 million tonnes.
About 5.9 million tonnes sits in the higher confidence measured and indicated categories, while the remainder is inferred.
The Salinas project resource makes up about a quarter of Lithium Ionic’s total 60.1-million-tonne lithium inventory.
CEO Blake Hylands says exploration over the adjacent Salinas properties could “significantly scale” Lithium Ionic’s resources.
Surface sampling and drilling undertake in 2022 identified multiple outcropping spodumene-rich pegmatite (SRP) bodies that were tested in the 2023 drilling campaign.
Ionic Lithium says the SRP bodies identified in the Salinas properties extend directly east from Latin Resources’ (ASX:LRS) Colina lithium deposit, which hosts 70.9 million tonnes @ 1.25% lithium.
A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) is currently underway over the Salinas properties by independent Brazilian consultancy GE21 Consultoria Mineral Ltda.
The PEA is slated for completion in the second half of this year.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Lithium Ionic
