Solis Minerals (ASX:SLM) has relinquished its proposed acquisition of the Jaguar Project in Brazil but struck an option agreement to purchase the Mina Vermelha Project.
The potential new project lies within the Borborema district of Rio Grande do Norte along the same mineralised regional trend as the Estrela Project.
The $24.15 million market capitalisation company says as far as Jaguar is concerned, negotiations regarding additional extensions to the due diligence period for the acquisition have been concluded without reaching satisfactory terms with the vendor.
Solis says exploration results from the initial Jaguar drillholes did not give it confidence that the project contained sufficient potential for grade or scale to continue with the acquisition.
Instead, the company’s wholly owned Brazilian subsidiary, Onça Mineracao, is now eyeing the Mina Vermelha Project in a $7.9 million cash deal.
Solis has paid a $155,000 option fee to conduct due diligence in the project area over the next 12 months.
The company will then pay $3.1 million as an option exercise fee, followed by two deferred considerations of $3.1 million and $1.55 million, respectively.
If Solis elects to satisfy an option exercise fee, Onça will acquire 100% interest in the project.
However, If Onça does not elect to pay the first and second deferred consideration then the 100% interest of the project will be transferred back to the vendor.
Solis’s geologists have visited the Mina Vermelha site and have identified 6 outcropping pegmatite bodies.
The company has secured an initial drill rig for an upcoming 8-hole for 1,300m program and is looking to secure an additional rig.
Solis Minerals Executive Chairman Matthew Boyes says this planned drill program is designed to give the company confidence in the potential for a ‘large’ mineralised system within the tenement package and allow it to move forward with the acquisition.
“We have identified over 2km strike of known pegmatite outcropping at surface, with no drilling completed to date.
This sets up an exciting quarter for us, with drilling programs at both Mina Vermelha and elsewhere in Borborema, and we continue to evaluate new opportunities in this exciting emerging Brazilian lithium province.”
“This sets up an exciting quarter for us, with drilling programs at both Mina Vermelha and elsewhere in Borborema”
Mina Vermelha covers a 500-hectare area with a granted mining lease of 6 hectares over one of the 6 currently known outcropping pegmatites on the lease.
Solis Minerals is an ASX-listed emerging lithium exploration company focused on Latin American battery minerals.
As of 30 June 2023, the company had $5.4 million cash at hand, according to its latest quarterly report. On 21 August 2023, the company closed the second tranche of a placement first announced in June to raise $5.2 million.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Solis Minerals
