PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed American Pacific Borate and Lithium will spend $3-million to acquire a 100% interest in the Salt Wells North and Salt Wells South borate and lithium exploration projects, in Nevada, in the US.
In addition to the $3-million exploration spend over a five-year period, American Pacific will also be required to pay $100 000 to the vendor up-front, to reimburse its project costs, with the company also required to pay all claim-related expenditure, estimated at $300 000, over the five-year period.
Once the projects were in commercial production, American Pacific will also be required to make a one-off payment of $1-million, and ongoing royalty payments valued at 3% of the gross revenues.
“We are very excited to be acquiring the rights to earn in to both the Salt Wells North and Salt Wells South borate and lithium exploration projects. The elevated levels of lithium and boron in surface salts from recent sampling suggests an opportunity to establish either a borate project hosted in the sediments or a lithium and/or boron project hosted in the brines, or both,” said American Pacific CEO Michael Schlumpberger.
“Importantly, under the earn-in agreement, we only have modest expenditure commitments in the first two years. This ensures our focus will continue to be on advancing our Fort Cady borate project into production.”
The Salt Well North project includes 171 claims of 20 acres, for a total project size of 13.8 km2, while Salt Wells South includes 105 claims of 20 acres for a total project size of 8.5 km2.
Work on the project area is expected to start in the second half of this year.