JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Perth-based lithium developer Cobre Montana (soon to be Lithium Australia) and strategic minerals company Pilbara Minerals to evaluate the potential for developing a lithium mica processing operation in the Pilbara region has been extended until the end of this year.
Cobre currently had the exclusive Western Australian rights to the only practical metallurgical process for commercial recovery of lithium chemicals from micas.
The extension follows new geological results from Pilbara Minerals’ drilling at its Pilgangoora project, located 150 km south-east of Port Hedland, Western Australia.
Pilbara Minerals released the results towards the end of Cobre’s initial due diligence, which was scheduled to conclude last month under the terms of the original MoU.
With plans for future drilling to extend into areas more favourable for the occurrence of lithium micas, both parties agreed to extend the MoU timeline by seven months to the end of December 2015.
Pilbara Minerals drill results coincided with a major 32% upgrade of the Pilgangoora Joint Ore Reserves Committee resource, which it announced in June.
The previous estimate was 8.6-million tons at 1.01% lithium superoxide (LiO₂) for 87 000 t; however, the resource now comprises 12.73-million tons at 1.42% LiO₂ for 182 000 t of contained lithium oxide.