PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Arizona Lithium has completed the acquisition of takeover target Prairie Lithium, effectively increasing its global lithium resource by 1 200% to 4.4-million tonnes.
Arizona in December last year struck a deal to acquire Prairie Lithium for C$40-million in cash and 500-million of its own shares, giving Prairie shareholders a 15% interest in Arizona Lithium.
“We are very pleased to have completed the acquisition of Prairie Lithium including Prairie’s Joint Ore Reserves Committee inferred mineral resource of 4.1-million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) at 111 mg/L lithium, which represents the highest quality inferred lithium brine resource in Canada discovered to date,” said Arizona MD Paul Lloyd.
“With the acquisition now complete, Arizona Lithium holds resources totalling 4.4-million tonnes of LCE making it a globally significant dual resource company. Arizona Lithium has also acquired Prairie’s proprietary direct lithium extraction technology that removes lithium from brines and ore bodies, which is already having encouraging results with Big Sandy material.
“By combining the lithium experience of both Arizona Lithium and Prairie, we aim to further advance this technology, with C$1.074-million recently received in Canadian government grant funding, which will be matched with funding from Arizona Lithium, and is to be invested into direct lithium extraction technology development,” said Lloyd.
He noted that Prairie’s board and management team had significant experience in lithium processing and technology, which would further bolster Arizona Lithium’s team as the company continued to focus on and expedite the sustainable development of the Big Sandy lithium project in Arizona in tandem with the Prairie brine project in the Williston basin.