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Arizona Lithium spreads its wings with brine drilling plans
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Arizona Lithium is expanding its horizons with plans to drill three holes to test newly identified targets at its Lordsburg lithium project in New Mexico.
Passive seismic and Titan magnetotelluric electromagnetic surveys had successfully identified a north trending basin containing targets interpreted to represent potential lithium mineralised brines, which represents a very different kind of play compared to the clay-hosted mineralisation at its flagship Big Sandy project in Arizona.
Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL) noted that the planned drill program represents a first mover opportunity to explore a playa lake system with similar geology and geography to Nevada’s Clayton, which is the only lithium producing region in the US at the moment.
Lordsburg also benefits from its location just 16km from the 15 megawatt Lightning Dock geothermal plant and close proximity to key interstate highways.
An application for the three hole program totalling 1,850m will be lodged imminently with the Las Cruces Bureau of Land Management for drill approval.
“The encouraging results from the recently completed geophysical surveys at the Lordsburg Lithium Brine Project in New Mexico identifying three priority drill hole locations, have provided the company with an outstanding opportunity to progress another project concurrently with the sustainable development of the Big Sandy Lithium Project in Arizona,” managing director Paul Lloyd said.
“The close proximity to renewable energy sources, direct access to the interstate highway system and sampled lithium mineralisation at surface, have identified this project to have the potential as a timely contributor to growing lithium supply requirements in the USA.”
Salty, lithium-bearing water
Lordsburg is located 15km from the town of Lordsburg in New Mexico within the playa lake system at the northernmost end of the Animas Valley.
Stock wells on the eastern Animas basin margin south of the project have intersected steam and hot springs essential to the development of lithium bearing brines while a 1954 US Geologic Survey map shows a windmill just west of the project margin, labelled as a “salt well” demonstrating the presence of highly saline subterranean water.
Historical surface sampling acquired by the company returned values of up to 114.5 parts per million lithium across the playa, which is in line with other Clayton Valley projects.
Its proximity to reliable, renewable energy and transportation also ticks off more boxes as they represent two of the largest costs for lithium brine projects.
This prospectivity led the company to double its Lordsburg land position back in November 2021 to 15.5km2.
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.
