JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Field exploration activity at three of diversified exploration company PepinNini Minerals’ eight mining leases (mina) at its Salta lithium project, in the Salta province of Argentina, has started.
The ASX-listed company reported on Wednesday that it had established an exploration team based in Salta and that preliminary brine samples would be collected from pits dug into the salars according to predesigned and agreed methods, with control and duplicate samples to ensure sample integrity. Samples and duplicates would be analysed at internationally registered laboratories.
Mina Sulfa 1, located on Salar de Pular, is to be sampled, as there have been historic lithium brine grades of 560 mg/l and 1 620 mg/l reported from samples taken from the Salar in 1980.
This preliminary sampling will assist prioritising and planning of exploration programmes for each mina. It is anticipated that further exploration will start in September and, depending on the unique geology and hydrogeology of each salar, could involve field reconnaissance, pit sampling and mapping, ground geophysics, trenching and groundwater (brine) sampling, drilling, core and groundwater analysis, downhole geophysics, aquifer testing for porosity and permeability and pump testing for aquifer flow and recharge rates.