VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Lithium explorers Nevada Sunrise Gold and Advantage Lithium have possibly discovered an untapped lithium-brine aquifer in Nevada’s prospective Clayton Valley, giving the partners’ Toronto-listed stocks a boost Wednesday.

Advantage, which is earning a 70% stake in the 405 ha Clayton NE property after funding C$3-million in exploration expenditures on a package of five lithium properties optioned from Nevada Sunrise, reported the best results to date returning total composite at 387.69 m of 243.66 mg/ℓ lithium in brines.

The current drilling programme targeted the broadest and most conductive zones detected by a September direct-current resistivity survey. The exploration has hit lithium-bearing brines with values similar to Albemarle’s brine samples from their producing Silver Peak operation, located immediately nextdoor, in Nevada’s Clayton Valley salar.

Hole CNE-16-03, drilled to a total depth of 591.3 m, has intersected multiple aquifer formations, including a higher-grade interval averaging 299.5 mg/ℓ over 36.92 m and a peak measurement of 322 mg/ℓ.

Advantage noted that Hole CEN-16-03 is one of the deepest boreholes drilled in the Clayton Valley and, based on results obtained, may have hit a previously untapped aquifer.

Geologists reported brine flows of up to 380 ℓ/m from the borehole between 350.76 m to 436.92 m, noting that high brine flows are important for economic production.

To date, the three-hole exploration programme has had a 100% success rate and uncovered a 3.43 km mineralised trend.

Advantage plans to drill three more holes permitted under the current exploration licence in 2017, in pursuit of establishing an initial resource estimate.

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.

Nevada Sunrise’s TSX-V-listed stock traded up 13.04% at C$0.26 apiece on Wednesday, with that of Advantage advancing nearly 12% to C$0.86 apiece.