PepinNini Lithium (ASX: PNN) has agreed to a direct tenement swap with Lithea Inc, giving PepinNini Lithea’s Salar de Incahuasi landholding in Argentina’s lithium triangle.
Additionally, PepinNini will purchase Lithea’s Mina Patilla tenement for US$1.075 million, providing PepinNini with more ground in the highly prospective region.
In return for the direct swap, PepinNini is handing over its Salinas Grandes tenure, which encompasses more ground, but is further from PepinNini’s other Argentinian projects.
Salar de Incahuasi is near to PepinNini’s current projects and covers 2,000 hectares. The company claims previous surface sampling at the project has returned up to 296 milligrams per litre of lithium.
“We are very pleased to have negotiated a position in the more prospective area in Salar de Incahuasi,” PepinNini managing director Rebecca Holland-Kennedy stated.
“While Salinas Grandes may still hold some potential, it is a huge area that is difficult to target and more expensive to explore,” Ms Holland-Kennedy noted.
Ms Holland-Kennedy added it was the company’s view that the newly acquired Salar de Incahuasi tenements will “yield positive results” and exploration will begin in the “near future”.
Additionally, PepinNini has agreed to purchase Lithea’s Mina Patilla tenement for a total US$1.075 million in staggered payments, which will give PepinNini full ownership of Salar de Pular within Argentina.
Mina Patilla will complement PepinNini’s Mina Sulfa project affording the company a combined 1,346ha of prospective ground on the salt flats.
Meanwhile, PepinNini’s first borehole on the salt flats encountered an aquifer with high porosity black sands. The company sent 32 brine sample for analysis, and depending on the results, a further four boreholes will be drilled across the Salar.
These new tenements complement PepinNini’s existing projects in the region, including Rincon, Pocitos, Arizaro and Pular.
According to PepinNini, the projects have access to necessary infrastructure should a lithium brine operation eventuate.
Shares in PepinNini were unchanged at A$0.037 in early morning trade.
