Pantera gets into Smackover, one of the world’s hottest lithium addresses

Pantera completed a raise of $2m for 35% stake in Daytona Lithium
The Smackover formation is considered one of the hottest brine precincts in the US
Exxon is there, and so are lithium majors Standard Lithium and Albemarle

Pantera Minerals has a foot in one of the world’s hottest lithium brine regions, Smackover in the US, after securing a 35% stake in the Superbird project.

Pantera will invest $2m in private Australian company Daytona Lithium for a 35% stake in Superbird, which contains 5,325 acres of brine prospective ground within the Smackover Formation, with a further 7,000 acres currently under negotiation.

This is supported by a two-tranche placement of 28,571,429 shares at 7c per share to raise the $2m to fund the stake in Daytona.

Smackover: A tier 1 lithium region

The Smackover Formation is a supercharged lithium brine formation home to a large-scale commercial brine processing industry and 100 years of oil and gas operations, is now experiencing a land rush.

With demand going through the roof, this has now become a tier 1 lithium address.

Superbird directly abuts Exxon’s (NYSE:XOM) Smackover lithium project, Standard Lithium’s (NYSE:SLI) Lanxess & South West Arkansas projects and Albemarle Corporation’s (NYSE:ALB) Lithium-Bromine brine project, which has been in production since the 70s.

Oil and gas major Exxon has moved into lithium after recently acquiring Galvanic Energy’s 4Mt Smackover brine acreage for ~US$100 million.

Exxon is also building a 75,000-100,000 metric tonne production plant, which equals ~15% of the world’s current lithium refinement capability.

Then there’s Standard Lithium expanding its stake in the region, signing a JV with a Koch Industries subsidiary to expand on its industrial-scale lithium extraction demonstration plant and 3.1Mt Lanxess project.

Meanwhile, Albemarle is building a facility in Arkansas to test its direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology for what it hopes will eventually filter lithium from existing bromine operations.

Pantera CEO Matt Hansen says –“ Pantera’s move into the Smackover now allows investors an inexpensive option into this lithium rich region, with Exxon and Standard Lithium as neighbours.”

Next steps: generating an exploration target

“With Pantera’s 35% investment into Daytona Lithium, the Company enters one of the most significant and emerging brine plays in the USA,” Pantera CEO Matt Hansen says.

“The Smackover play is fast becoming recognised as a leading play globally for lithium brine production with a long-established bromine brine extraction industry and a 100 years of oil and gas well data available.

“We look forward to working with the Daytona team with the aim of increasing the leased area and generating a lithium exploration target in the short term and creating value by providing shareholders with exploration exposure to this exciting battery metals project.

Benefitting from a proprietary data base

Daytona and its founding shareholder 2CP Resources have identified several lithium brine-rich target areas in the Smackover Formation, Arkansas, via a proprietary data base which comprises both public & private data and data samples.

This IP was developed by 2CP over the period spanning their significant leasing activity across multiple basins. Daytona retains the exclusive rights to this IP for the state of Arkansas.

Daytona’s strategy has been to leverage its IP to obtain mineral leases through a two-stage process. The Phase I leasing program is located within the ‘First Target Area’, targeting ~6,400 acres (25km2) which is nearing completion – with another 7,000 acres under negotiation.

The Phase II leasing program is located within the ‘Second Target Area’ and involves the leasing of up to a further 50,000 acres.

This article was develped in collaboration with Pantera Minerals, 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.