Solaroz Lithium Project

Strategic lithium asset in a region of known lithium supply

The Solaroz Lithium Project (Solaroz) (LEL:90%) comprises 12,000 hectares of mineral concessions hosting a significant lithium discovery located within the Salar de Olaroz Basin (Olaroz Salar) in South America’s ‘Lithium Triangle’ in north-west Argentina. Argentina holds the world’s biggest lithium brine resources and is currently the world’s third largest producer of lithium, after Australia and Chile.

The location of Solaroz is considered by Lithium Energy to be highly strategic, being located in the same Olaroz Salar as the Olaroz Lithium Facility operated by Arcadium Lithium Limited (ASX:LTM) in a joint venture with Tokyo Stock Exchange listed Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TYO:8015) producing lithium carbonate from lithium-rich brine extracted from bore fields drilled on the Olaroz Salar. Solaroz is also in close proximity to the recently commissioned Olaroz-Cauchari lithium carbonate production facility operated by a joint venture between Lithium Argentina (TSX:LAAC) and Ganfeng Lithium.

The Olaroz Salar covers ~45,000 hectares and Lithium Energy is one of only three groups that control the lithium concession rights on the Olaroz Salar, with the remainder of these lithium rights held by Arcadium Lithium and Lithium Argentina.

Lithium Energy has defined a JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 3.3Mt of LCE (refer Table 1), of which 2.4Mt is in the Indicated Mineral Resource category. Within the 3.3Mt LCE Resource, there is a high-grade core of 1.3Mt of LCE with an average concentration of 400 mg/l Lithium (at a 320 mg/l Lithium cut-off grade) (refer Table 2).

The Company completed a Scoping Study at Solaroz in late 2023. The outstanding Scoping Study results, highlight the potential of Solaroz as a large scale, long life, high margin lithium project.

The study shows that Solaroz brine grades are suitable for producing a battery grade LCE product by conventional evaporation pond technology, which gives an immediate low risk go-forward case to produce from the same salar next door to Arcadium Lithium.

In addition, the Study highlights the potential for the application of new technologies such as DLE to reduce both capital and operating costs, and the Company will continue to evaluate their economic and environmental implications.

Key Scoping Study Outcomes

The DLE evaluation is progressing through an agreement with Xi’an Lanshen New Material Technology Co. Ltd, in which Lanshen has agreed to construct a battery grade lithium plant at Solaroz capable of producing 3,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per annum.  

In addition, the Company contracted Norlab S.R.L (Norlab) in Argentina to conduct evaporation testwork on representative samples of lithium rich brines from Solaroz.  Norlab will be assisted with chemical assay and analysis by the highly respected Alex Stewart Laboratory, based in San Salvador Jujuy.

To support the laboratory evaporation and salt precipitation testwork, test ponds were installed on site to validate the local environmental and site evaporation conditions in a pond simulation environment.  The real time evaporation rates will underpin the evaporation pond designs. 

The Company achieved a significant milestone in the advancement of Solaroz to production with the first sample of battery grade (99.5%) lithium carbonate (LC) having been produced through the laboratory programme, started by Norlab.

The Norlab program was conducted on a 300 – litre sample of Solaroz brine taken from Drillhole 3 – SOZDD003 (located on the Chico I concession) at a depth of between 514 and 552 metres with a feed grade of 397mg/l Li, which was determined by the Company to be generally representative of the lithium rich brines contained at Solaroz.