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Location: 165 km SW from Salta, Argentina
Junín esq. Prado - PACatamarcaArgentina4700
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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.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. Dense brine was observed as the interstitial fluid at all depths in the basin, typically increasing brine density with depth. In addition, although there is no borehole data currently to support this, it is anticipated that dense brine will also be located in the lower parts of the older rock units that form the margins of the basin.Long-term hydrological pump testing under operating conditions has demonstrated excellent brine extraction rates to support the production design basis.
