Overview

Mine Type	In-Situ
Stage	Permitting
Commodities	Lithium
Mining Method	Brine mining
Project Timeline	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The Arizaro Project is one of the last remaining undeveloped salars in the Lithium Triangle, with est. resource of 3,323,000 tonne LCE – highly de-risked with a clear pathway to production and high-quality infrastructure. In February 2022, an Environmental Impact Study was submitted to the provincial mining authorities for the Project's prefeasibility stage, including environmental, social and community aspects, providing general information on the Project area. The approval of EIS is in process, and additional permits are required for the project: the water permit for industrial water and the registration in the Registry of Hazardous Waste Generators has already been approved; the water permit for potable water and the municipal qualification are still in process and expected to be obtained in the short term.

Deposit type

• Brine

Summary:

Deposit Types
The deposit type corresponds to a brine aquifer within a salar basin.

Based on the available information, Salar de Arizaro is a mature salar, and one of the larger salars in the Argentinean altiplano. A thick halite core exists in the basin with underlying clastic sediments, forming the basis for the planned exploration program. Basin margins are interpreted to be fault controlled. The principal sources of water entering the project area are from surface water coming into the basin from the basin margins. To date, surface water flow has not been formally measured. Some groundwater inflow from natural recharge along the mountain fronts via alluvial fans is also believed to exist. In both cases, there appears to be limited mixing of the freshwater and brine in the basin due to density differences, although the mixing is believed to be more pronounced in the shallowest portion of the aquifer. As such, the freshwater entering the Project tends to stay in the upper part of the aquifer system on the edges of the basin, without moving to the central deep portion of the salar. These freshwater discharge areas tend to support altiplanic vegetation, especially along the margin.

Mineralization
The mineralization for the project consists of a lithium-enriched brine, generally below 190 m bls, that is contained within the pore spaces of the basin-fill sedimentary strata in the salar basin. Also, with this deep brine, boron and potassium enrichment may be considered as having future potential for economic extraction. The mineralization of the brine has occurred over a long period of time via evapo-concentration in the Salar, and the near surface portion is believed to be diluted by precipitation and freshwater recharge. Laterally, the brine is continuous throughout the mine concessions given the depositional environment and topographical low point where evapo-concentration occurs.

Based on the exploration to date within the Project concessions, the aquifer system is a lithium-enriched brine with generally consistent grades that are higher at depth. Approximate average lithium concentration in undiluted brine below 190 m ranges from about 200 – 360 mg/L, with elevated values in the southeast portion of the property below 110 m bls (exceeding 500 mg/L with depth).

The boundaries of the mineralization are suspected to be the basin hard rock, fault-bounded boundaries, although some lithium-enriched brine may be contained in the fractures and/or pores of the rocks that form the basin boundary. Aside from lithium, the distribution and chemical composition of the brine in the entire salar sediments is not currently known, even though this type of information exists for the Lithium Chile concessions.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

Metrics
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Personnel

Job Title	Name	Phone	Email	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................				Aug 4, 2023
.......................	.......................				Aug 4, 2023
.......................	.......................	...........	...........		Jul 16, 2024

Employees	Year
......	2023