RE:PP1-R-25Hi Allyboys,
Hope the following links and info answer your questions.
As you see from the NR, previous drilling and holes R-24 & R-25, all had technical difficulties to drill deeper. I am very knowledgable about drilling (my company does it), as NLC said that the undernearth materials are sand, grave;, halite, etc, they are all loose materials, and the hole will not be stable, the loose materials run into the borehole, keep jamming the drill casing, IMO, the only way to drill deeper is to use telescope method, using different sizes of drill casing, say 18-inch casing from 0 to 50 meters, 16-inch casing from 0-100 meters, 14-inch casing to 150 meters, etc, in this way, the biger size provide support of the loose soil and reduce friction.
Hope I answered your questions.
tiger
https://www.neolithium.ca/news-detail.php?id_news=38
https://www.neolithium.ca/news-detail.php?id_news=41
https://www.neolithium.ca/news-detail.php?id_news=45
2019 Drilling Campaign
The Company is also pleased to announce that it has started drilling the northern high-grade zone. The first well is projected to be 300 m deep. As previously reported and filed in the Company’s 43-101 technical report dated September 4, 2018, this zone contains 746,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate in the measured and indicated resource categories at a grade of 1,007 mg/l lithium plus 186,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate in the inferred resource category at a grade of 1,240 mg/L lithium. This high-grade zone constitutes only 14% of the current resource, however it has been drilled only to 100 m in depth and contains the highest grade of the entire project. The current drilling program anticipates the depth of investigation to be at least 3 times in orders of magnitude. The Company believes that the high-grade zone extends deeper, since in the rest of the basin and the brine continues all the way to 600 m. After drilling, the well will be converted into a production well with a large diameter (12 inches) and metal screen.
“Testing the deeper portion of the northern high-grade zone proved difficult last season because the sediments consist of coarse gravel and sand,” said Dr. Waldo Perez, President and CEO of Neo Lithium Corp. “For this year’s drilling campaign, we are using a new rig with superior capabilities and technology, and we are confident we will test the deeper portion of the basin under the high-grade zone this time. Increasing the resource in the high-grade zone would have a significant impact in the pond requirement and therefore may have a positive effect on the capex on the project.”
Neo Lithium Announces Results of New Drill Hole and Long-Term Pump Test in the High-grade Zone of the 3Q Project
April 8, 2019
- The new drill hole in the high-grade zone yielded 137.6m with 1,128 mg/l Li extending the high-grade zone depth from 100m to 160m
- Long-term pump test at 80 m3/h for 20 days provided stable lithium production
TORONTO, April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neo Lithium Corp. (“Neo Lithium” or the “Company”) (TSXV: NLC; OTCQX: NTTHF; FSE: NE2) is pleased to announce that Hidrotec SA completed Drill Hole PP25-R-1 down to 167 metres and a long-term pump test has been completed in its wholly-owned Tres Quebradas lithium brine project ("3QProject") in Catamarca Province, Argentina.
Drill hole PB1-R-24 is located in the high-grade zone of the 3Q Project. The rocks found in the hole are porous halite, sands and gravels from the surface to the bottom of the hole. The hole was stopped at 160 metres depth due to technical difficulties drilling loose gravel. The hole was finished with 8 inches diameter PVC filters from 16 metres all the way to the bottom of the well. Sampling was done with a pumping rate of 11 m3/h and 5 brine samples were collected during 6 hours of pumping. The average lithium grade of the 137.6 meters that were pumped was 1,128 mg/l Li. The Magnesium/Lithium ratio is 1.6 and the Sulfate/Lithium is 0.18. The location of the drill hole is available on the Company’s web site at: https://www.neolithium.ca/project/default.aspx#section=maps
"The high-grade zone in the northern end of the 3Q project has been drilled in the past down to only 100 metres with PB-R-18. Results of the new hole, PB-1-R24 extends the high-grade zone down to 160 metres," said Waldo Perez, President and CEO of Neo Lithium. "We will continue our efforts to extend the resource of the high-grade zone at depth in order to hopefully increase high grade reserves at the final feasibility stage."
Neo Lithium Discovers High Grade Lithium at Greater Depth
June 6, 2019
- PB1-R-25 yielded an average of 1,117 mg/L Lithium, 11,319 mg/L K, Mg/Li=1.59 and SO4/Li=0.1 over 178 m from 87 to 265m depth
- This drill result validates additional high-grade lithium brine below the area where the resource and reserve was defined in the PFS to only 10 metres in depth
TORONTO, June 6, 2019 /CNW/ - Neo Lithium Corp. ("Neo Lithium" or the "Company") (TSXV:NLC; OTCQX:NTTHF; FSE:NE2) is pleased to report new drilling results from its wholly-owned Tres Quebradas lithium brine project ("3Q Project") in Catamarca Province, Argentina.
The Company filed a reserve estimation on May 7, 2019 within prefeasibility study ("PFS") which defined proven and probable reserves of 1,294,000 tones of lithium carbonate with an average grade of 790 mg/L Lithium with a cut off at 800 mg/L Lithium out of a measured and indicated resource of 4,005,000, with a cut off at 400 mg/L Lithium. The PFS also provided a mine plan strategy at the 3Q Project which focused extracting the high-grade lithium brine first.
The reserve estimation contains a high-grade core of 368,000 tonne of lithium carbonate to be exploited in the first 10 years with an average grade of above 1,000 mg/L Lithium. This high-grade core is critical given it enables the Company to build less ponds at the beginning of the project, therefore lowering initial capital expenditures, while achieving the target production of 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate, as stated in the PFS.
This high-grade core was only drilled down to 100 metres depth in the previous drilling campaigns used to estimate the resource and reserve. The objective of the 2019 drilling season was to extend at depth the high-grade zone in the northern portion of the 3Q Project.
The Company received geochemical results from 10 samples of the last hole of the season, PB1-R-25 that yielded an average over 178 metres, from 87 metres to 265 metres deep, of 1,117 mg/L Lithium, 11,319 mg/L K, Mg/Li=1.59 and SO4/Li=0.1. The hole is located on the eastern border of the 3Q lake, an area where the reserve estimation assumed brine to be present to only 10 meters depth, however the hole encountered brine all the way from surface to 265 metres depth.
The rocks found in the hole are porous halite, sands, silt, clays and gravels from the surface to the bottom of the hole. Drilling stop at 280 metres depth due to technical difficulties.
The well was finished with blind casing with cement and clay pallets from surface to 87 metres to isolate the upper known aquifers from the bottom of the well, and 8 inches metal screen from 87 metres to 265 metres. The well was pumped over 72 hours to collect 10 brine samples (one sample every 7 hours approximately). This hole effectively expands the zone of high-grade brine down from 100 m to 265 m, providing significant upside for future resource and reserves expansions.
The Company had also drilled hole PB1-R-24, which was reported on April 8, 2019, and yielded from surface to 160 meters 1,128 mg/l Lithium, confirming the expansion potential at depth.
"We were able to validate this season that our high-grade resource and reserve statement have significant potential to increase," stated Waldo Perez, President and CEO of Neo Lithium. "the 3Q Project is today the highest-grade project in Argentina and will continue to grow as drilling demonstrate the importance of the northern high-grade zone"
See location of the drill holes in the company web site. https://www.neolithium.ca/project/default.aspx#section=maps
allyboys wrote: From the PR it appears that hole PP1-R-25 did not hit brine until it was down 90 meters deep. The part I don't understand is that the new deep hole was very close to PP1-R-25 and hit brine starting from 11 meters. Please help me understand? I have not found a map of the hole locations.