The Canadian battery metal miner Lithium Chile Inc. (TSX-V: LITH) has entered a partnership with the major French company Eramet S.A. (EPA: ERA) to develop a series of exploration-stage assets in the Chilean salt flats.
Eramet will undertake a three-phase exploration program valued at US$20 million. It will take three to four years to complete.
“Upon completion of each phase, Eramet shall earn share capital in the joint venture holding the mining tenements, totalling up to 70 per cent at the end of phase 3 with an option to reach 100 per cent equity,” Lithium Chile said Tuesday in a news release.
The companies will engage with their joint initiative at Lithium Chile’s Llamara, Aquas Caliente, Aguilar and Rio Salado tenements. They collectively span over 40,000 hectares.
“We look forward to leveraging their capabilities to maximize the potential of our Chilean properties,” Lithium Chile chief executive Steve Cochrane said. Cochrane’s company will be entitled to a “success bonus” agreed upon with Eramet and dependant on the quantity of lithium carbonate identified.
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Chilean exports to the U.S. will rise, Treasury Secretary Yellen says
Janet Yellen toured Albemarle Corporation’s (NYSE: ALB) operations in Chile last weekend. She met with President Gabriel Boric, government officials and business executives in Santiago to discuss expanding ties between the nations.
“I can’t tell you numbers, but I imagine that we will be expanding substantially our purchases from Chile,” she said.
Eramet has taken a keen interest in Argentina’s lithium industry as well. The mining company has invested well over US$1 billion into the nation.
Investors from several other countries have been eyeing Argentina’s battery metal industry because it is far less regulated than Chile’s. Albemarle, Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) (NYSE: SQM) and the state-owned copper giant Codelco are Chile’s only designated producers. Chile agreed to nationalize its industry last spring.
An Argentine delegation just attended the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto to promote the nation’s resources.
The country is home to major international operators like Albemarle, Arcadium Lithium plc (NYSE: ALTM) and Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) (KRX: 005490). South Korea’s POSCO just partnered with Lithium South Development Corporation (TSX-V: LIS) (OTCQB: LISMF) (Frankfurt: OGPQ) to develop a major lithium resource in the Salta province.
Eramet was founded by the Rothschild banking family in the late nineteenth century. The multinational company produces lithium, manganese, nickel and mineral sands needed for various purposes.
Lithium Chile recently intercepted significant quantities of lithium with the latest drill hole at its flagship Arizaro project in Salta, Argentina. Two hundred metres below the surface, the junior obtained samples yielding 690 milligrams of the battery metal per litre.
Lithium South Development Corporation is a sponsor of Mugglehead news coverage
rowan@mugglehead.com
