VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Explorer Advantage Lithium and its joint venture partner Nevada Sunrise Gold have hit lithium-bearing brines with values similar to Albemarle’s brine samples from their producing Silver Peak operation, located immediately next door, in Nevada’s Clayton Valley salar.

The region played host to a staking rush over the past several years along North America’s only producing resource of lithium, but little exploration work has subsequently been completed, with the partnership leading the pack. The 405 ha Clayton NE property is arguably the most favourable prospect in the district – a stone’s throw away from producing lithium brine wells.

However, not only do the partners have access to such a proximal location to current production, they are the only lithium explorers in the Clayton Valley, other than Albemarle, with access to certified water rights.

Advantage on Tuesday reported that the first drill hole on the Clayton NE property intercepted lithium brines showing values up to 218 ppm lithium in the first five groundwater samples.

Hole CNE-16-01 has intercepted aquifer formations that host brines at depths between 169 m and 365 m. Lithium values in the first five grab samples taken within the aquifer zones are highly anomalous, including up to 218 ppm, with three of the five samples averaging 209 ppm lithium.

Total dissolved solids (TDS) values for the first five groundwater brine samples from hole CNE-16-01 were recorded up to 110 000 ppm for samples containing the highest lithium values. This relationship of TDS to lithium grade indicates a direct correlation between higher lithium values and higher-strength brine, the company said in a release.

Advantage, which is earning a 70% stake in the property after funding C$3-million in exploration expenditures on a package of five lithium properties optioned from Nevada Sunrise, plans to drill two more holes as part of the current drilling programme, targeting the broadest and most conductive zones detected by a September direct-current resistivity survey.

This year’s 1 500 m drilling campaign is focused on lithium brine targets close to the Silver Peak mine border and several of Albemarle's production wells.