American Lithium aims for maiden PEA in Nevada
American Lithium Corp. [LI-TSXV, LIACF-OTCQB, 5LA1-Frankfurt] has released an update of initial diamond drill results from a program that is currently under way at the company’s Tonopah Lithium Project (TLC) project in Nevada.
The company said this diamond drill program, which was launched in February, 2022, is focused on expanding the existing large-scale, near surface resource at TLC.
Drilling highlights include hole TLC-2206C, which returned 50.3 metres of 1,550 ppm Li from 145 to 310 metres downhole, including 11.0 metres averaging 2,104 ppm Li from 225 to 261.2 metres. The company said the entire holes from 30 to 351 metres is mineralized, averaging 1012 ppm Li (maximum 2,900 ppm LI – 4.4 metre sample from 234.5).
“We are very pleased that these results continue to expand the drilled resource footprint with higher grades and consistently thicker mineralization than the existing TLC resource,” said American Lithium CEO Simon Clarke. “Our main focus for the diamond drilling has been to expand and high grade our existing resource and these results successfully achieve both objectives,” he said.
“This will enable us to better position starter pits under our mining plan to initially focus on higher grade sections of the resource thereby maximizing project returns. We are looking forward to updating the mineral resource estimate for TLC in conjunction with finalizing our maiden PEA [preliminary economic assessment].
American Lithium is working to develop the TLC lithium project which is located in the Esmeralda lithium district in Nevada and 3.5 hours south of the Tesla Motors Ltd. [TSLA-NASDAQ] Gigafactory. TLC is located in the same basinal environment as Albemarle Corp.’s [ALB-NYSE] Silver Peak lithium mine as well as several advancing deposits, including Cypress Development Corp.’s [CYP-TSXV] Clayton Valley project.
The company has said the TLC project is a near surface lithium deposit, one that is amenable to low-cost sustainable mining methods.
In May, 2020, a maiden mineral resource was established. TLC currently hosts 3.35 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in the measured resource category. On top of that is 2.02 million tonnes of LCE (indicated) and 1.76 million tonnes LCE (inferred).
The company also said Thursday it has completed the acquisition of the Reason Ranch, and its accompanying water-right, located in the Big Smoky Valley near Tonopah. Through the acquisition, the company said it has secured significant additional water rights for the TLC project. American said it paid US$3.12 million to an arms length vendor for the property.
On Thursday, American Lithium shares eased 2.4% or $0.04 to $1.62 on volume of 138,610. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $6.25 and $1.53.