VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – New explorer Advantage Lithium has signed a letter of intent (LoI) to acquire an option to earn 100% interest in the Stella Marys project, located within the so-called ‘Lithium Triangle’ of Salta province, Argentina.

The Vancouver-headquartered company announced Wednesday that the 1 472 ha property is located in the western sector of the Salinas Grandes salar, where the country’s two active producers are also located.

“Acquiring a lithium brine project of this calibre in Argentina’s Lithium Triangle is a tremendous step forward for the company and our progress points clearly to the calibre of the management and technical team we have assembled,” stated Advantage president and director David Sidoo.

According to a statement released by Advantage, the Stella Marys project borders Orocobre’s Salar de Salinas Grandes lithium/potassium/boron brine project, which hosts a near-surface, low sulphate inferred resource estimate of 56.5-million cubic metres of brine grading 795 mg/ℓ lithium (239 200 t lithium carbonate equivalent and 9 547 mg/ℓ potassium – or 1.03-million tonnes of potash equivalent) and 283 mg/ℓ boron.
 
Advantage believes that Orocobre’s shallow inferred mineral resource is immediately adjacent to – and potentially extends onto – the Stella Marys property, where a previous operator is reported to have completed a comprehensive exploration programme of mapping and sampling, geochemistry, some drilling with pump tests, and preliminary engineering. These and other technical reports will be confirmed as part of the company’s due diligence, it advised.

Under the terms of the option agreement, Advantage paid $100 000 on signing the LoI and will make a further payment of $250 000 and 300 000 common shares on TSX-V acceptance of the transaction, or 90 days from the date of signing the LoI. It will also pay another $250 000 and 300 000 common shares six months after TSX-V acceptance, and a further $650 000 and 900 000 common shares on the first anniversary of TSX-V acceptance.

The transaction is subject to Advantage completing due diligence.

The announcement follows a day after the company said it had signed a LoI for an option to earn up to a 70% interest in several lithium brine exploration projects, located in Chihuahua, north-west Mexico, from Radius Gold. The company is also preparing to start a drill campaign to test targets a stone's throw away from Albemarle’s Silver Peak lithium-producing mine, in Nevada’s Clayton Valley.

Advantage’s TSX-V-listed stock jumped 14.6% on the news Wednesday, hitting C$0.94 apiece.