VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – The largest holder of Chilean lithium brine assets Wealth Minerals expects to have a drill turning in the ground at its Trinity project before month-end, the company announced on Monday.

The Vancouver-based company said transient electromagnetic surveys have identified highly conductive zones, which are interpreted to represent porous media with high-salinity fluids (potentially lithium-bearing brines) at depth. 

Multiple anomalies are identified within the survey area with several drill targets southwest of the surface brine area. These targets represent the highest priority for exploration as they have the highest tenor conductivity (lower resistivity), suggesting greater saturation and/or higher salinity, the company explained in a statement.

The drilling programme is expected to comprise three holes using a sonic drill rig to a depth of 400 m each, collecting brine samples at 50 m intervals. Management expects the drill rig to be on site by the end of May and to have completed the drill programme by June.

The Quisquiro property, part of the company’s Trinity project, has been designated by the Chilean government as one of the top 15 potential lithium producers in the country, and further independent analysis has given the property the highest possible ‘Tier One’ designation, strongly suggesting expected lithium-brine concentrations found to range from 423 mg/ℓ to 1 080 mg/ℓ. The Quisquiro salar is held by SQM and Wealth Minerals.

Wealth in March entered into a partnership with State-owned National Mining Company of Chile (Enami), whereby the parties have agreed to form a strategic alliance to develop and commercialise the company’s projects in the Salar de Atacama and Laguna Verde.

“With this critical partnership, the company has shifted priorities from accumulation of projects to systematic technical evaluation to determine which projects will be prioritised moving forward, especially now with the Enami alliance that allows both companies to move the projects forward quickly,” Wealth CEO Henk van Alphen said in a news release.

“Drill testing of targets at Trinity is an important step in a process that will see several projects evaluated by the end of the first half of 2018,” he stated.