Alset On the Verge of Developing a New Lithium Brine Alset Energy Corp. (TSXV:ION) is a Canadian exploration Junior on the verge of developing an exciting new supply of lithium and potassium bearing brine in Mexico. Right now, the lithium world generally recognizes only three lithium brine districts worldwide: the lithium triangle in South America, Clayton Valley, Nevada in the USA, and Tibet. Alset expects their central Mexican Plateau deposit will form an exciting fourth district to supply this vital metal.
Several historic studies published by the Mexican Geological Society in the late 1980s and early 1990s demonstrated the presence of lithium and potassium brine high in the Central Mexican Plateau in the States of Zacatecas and San Luis Potos. The discovery generated little interest at the time.
In 2009, a Mexican mining entrepreneur filed claim to a number of brine deposits or “salars” as they are widely known in South America. The company conducted extensive sampling and testing and expended a good deal of effort to promote the deposits. While the work clearly demonstrated lithium and potassium enrichment within the salars, the sampling and analysis were directed at demonstrating the presence of lithium clay deposits, not lithium brines. The promotion effort went nowhere and the prior owner decided to sell the concessions. Alset picked them up, paying back taxes and finder’s fees, with a further commitment of $210,000 over the next five years to gain 100% ownership. The property will be subject to a 2.25% NSR in favour of the Optioner of which 1% can be purchased by the Company for US$250,000.
During Alset’s due diligence field evaluation and literature review, a different picture emerged. The lithium and potassium are held not in clay minerals as previously believed, but in brine solutions, just like in South America’s lithium triangle.
A Mexican Geological Society report from 1992 describes results from a study aimed at improving table salt production from one of Alset’s Mexican brine deposits, the Caliguey lagoon. The salt operation pumped brine from a well set at 20-m deep, and evaporated brine in a series of ponds until the salt crystallized. They then turned the tail water back to the greater lagoon. It is a fact that the deposit can produce brine to a well. Two of the other salars host similar salt operations.
For one reason or another the Mexican Geological Society analyzed evaporation pond tail water and receiving lagoon water for lithium. The lithium concentrations range from 1.2% to an eye-popping 2.1% Li.
Rockwood Silver Peak, Nevada (formerly Foote Minerals) feeds solutions containing about 0.7% Li to the lithium carbonate production plant. In order to reduce the <200 ppm produced brine to that strength, they place the fluid in large evaporation ponds to drive off contained water. The process lasts for several years. So, inadvertently, the salt miners at Caliguey concentrated a lithium brine to commercial feed strength by the same process used in the modern lithium industry.
If, as expected, Alset’s upcoming drilling program confirms the presence of lithium brines with sufficient quantity and grade for commercial production, the Mexican salars will become the world’s fourth lithium brine production district. What is more, these deposits exist in the midst of substantial infrastructure, just miles from one of the greatest and oldest silver mining districts on earth.
Alset Energy’s second lithium property is the Wisa Lake (spodumene) project in Ontario, Canada where the company is actively exploring under a funding grant from the Ontario Prospectors Association and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.
Finally, the company’s highly prospective Champion flake graphite project, also located in Ontario, has returned promising results from exploratory trenching.