.
Location: 165 km SW from Salta, Argentina
Riparian Plaza Level 35, 71 Eagle StreetGPO Box 3024BrisbaneQueensland, Australia4000
Stay on top of the latest gold discoveries. Examine the latest updates on drilling outcomes spanning various commodities.
Mining scale, mining and mill throughput capaciites.Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Shaft depth, mining scale, backfill type and mill throughput data.Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Equipment type, model, size and quantity.Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Camp size, mine location and contacts.Full profiles of select mines and projects.
The regional geological setting is the Altiplano Puna plateau, an area of uplift that began during the middle to late Miocene (10 – 15 Ma). Red-bed sediments formed during the early to middle Miocene in areas of structural depressions. During the middle to late Miocene, a combination of thrust faulting, uplift and volcanism led to the sedimentary basins becoming isolated. The Cordilleras and major watersheds bound the Puna area to the west and east. Sedimentation in these basins began with the formation of alluvial fans at the feet of the uplifted ranges and continued with the development of playa sandflats and mudflat facies.In basin areas, the watersheds are within the basins; there are no outlets from the basins. Ongoing runoff, both surface and underground, continued solute dissolution from the basins and concentration in their centres where evaporation is the only outlet. Evaporite minerals occur both as disseminations within a clastic sequence and as discrete beds.The Salar system in the Hombre Muerto basin is considered a typical mature salar. The Hombre Muerto basin has an evaporite core that is dominated by halite. Basin margins are steep and are interpreted to be fault-controlled. The east basin margin is predominantly Pre-Cambrian metamorphic and crystalline rocks belonging to Pachamama formation. Volcanic tuff and reworked tuffaceous sediments, most likely from Cerro Galan complex, together with tilted Tertiary rocks, are common along the western and northern basin margins. In the Sal de Vida Project area, the dip angle of Tertiary sandstone is commonly about 45º to the southeast. Porous travertine and associated calcareous sediments are common in the subsurface throughout the basin and are flat lying; these sediments appear to form a marker unit that is encountered in most core holes at similar altitudes. Several exploration boreholes located near basin margins completely penetrated the flat-lying basin-fill deposits, and have bottoms in tilted Tertiary sandstone, volcanic tuff, and micaceous schist.Sal de Vida’s brine chemistry has a high lithium grade, low levels of magnesium, calcium and boron impurities and readily upgrades to battery grade lithium carbonate. Long-term hydrological pump testing under operating conditions has demonstrated excellent brine extraction rates to support the production design basis.The deposit type is a brine aquifer within a salar basin. The extent of the active model resources covers an area of 146 km2 for Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources plus an area of 14.9 km2 for Inferred Mineral Resources, with a total of 160.9 km2.
- subscription is required.
