Arizona Lithium doubles size of New Mexico lithium brines play

Arizona Lithium is capitalising on improving market sentiment by doubling its land position at the Lordsburg project in New Mexico near major lithium-ion battery infrastructure.

The company has pegged a further 96 Bureau of Land Management claims in the northern portion of the larger playa that could host lithium brines, doubling the area covered by the project to 192 claims, or about 15.5 sq km.

Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL) intends to carry out a passive seismic survey across the project in conjunction with a Titan magnetotelluric electromagnetics survey in the first quarter of 2022.

The latter survey is similar to those employed successfully by Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) at iys Hombre Muerto Li Project in Argentina, which has a resource of 2.3 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.

The company has also started discussions for zero-carbon renewable power energy requirements at Lordsburg.

“We are encouraged by initial results at the Lordsburg Brine Project in New Mexico,” managing director Paul Lloyd said.

“We think this is an outstanding opportunity to progress another project along with the Big Sandy Lithium Project in Arizona.

“With sufficient lithium grade, close proximity to renewable energy sources and direct access to the interstate highway system, this project has the potential to be a timely contributor to growing lithium supply requirements in the USA.”

Separately, the company expects to release an update on ongoing metallurgical testwork at its Big Sandy project later this quarter.

arizona lithium — Lordsburg project, playa, salt well and surface sampling results. Pic: Supplied

Lordsburg Brine Project

The Lordsburg project is 15km southwest of the town of Lordsburg within the playa lake system at the northernmost end of the Animas Valley.

The basin is an elongated sediment filled graben (valley) surrounded by tertiary volcanic rocks, a similar setting to the Clayton Valley, host to the only producing lithium project in the US.

It is located close to the 15 megawatt Lightning Dock geothermal power plant and key interstate highways.

Historical surface sampling acquired by Arizona Lithium returned values of up to 114.5 parts per million lithium across the playa, which is in line with other Clayton Valley projects.

This article was developed in collaboration with Arizona Lithium, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.