Power Minerals starts resource definition drilling at Salta lithium project
钻井的目的是为Pocitos和Incahuasi 盐沼提供原始资源，同时扩大Rincon的现有估算。
Power Minerals (ASX: PNN) has kicked-off a mineral resource definition drilling campaign at the Salta lithium project in the Salta province of northwest Argentina’s lithium triangle.
Local contractor Hidrotec SRL has been engaged to complete the drilling at the Incahuasi, Pocitos and Rincon salares with a view to expanding the current global resource at Salta, which sits at 239,000 tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent grading 313 milligrams per litre of lithium.
Drilling at the Incahuasi salar will comprise two holes for a total 1,000 metres and is designed to deliver a maiden mineral resource estimate.
The work is expected to take up to 10 weeks to complete, after which lithium brine and drill core samples will be sent for lab testing and chemical analysis.
Incahuasi is located immediately adjacent to Ganfeng Lithium Co’s Mariana project, which has a measured and indicated resource of 4.4 million tonnes of LCE and an inferred resource of 786,000t.
Mariana is considered to be one of the biggest lithium deposits in the world.
Pocitos and Rincon
After drilling at Incahuasi, Power’s rig will move to the Pocitos salar for delivery of a maiden resource estimate and then to Rincon to expand the existing resource.
The Rincon salar is adjacent to the Rincon Mining’s Rincon lithium project, which was acquired in March by Rio Tinto for $1.28 billion.
The Salta project consists of seven mining leases over a total area of 147.07 square kilometres across five salares.
Power is aiming to upgrade Salta’s global resource to support future development plans such as direct lithium extraction (DLE) operations.
Geophysical survey
In August, Power started a vertical electrical sounding (VES) geophysical survey across the Salta project.
The results are expected to play an important role in supporting the company’s near-term resource drilling programs and water management plans, feeding into environmental studies and approvals for Salta’s proposed development.
They will be combined with previous geophysical surveys and the project’s lithium exploration database to refine lithium brine drill targets at Incahuasi, Pocitos and Rincon and identify potential near-surface freshwater in adjacent alluvial fans for DLE.