Mar 24 2017
Alset Energy Corp. (TSX VENTURE:ION) ("Alset" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that having completed an environmental report and an application for drilling, the Company has received the necessary permits to commence drilling at its La Salada lithium project near Zacatecas, Mexico. The Company is now in the process of securing drill crews and site personnel and is expecting to commence drilling in early April.
In addition to the drilling, the Company will commence a shallow subsurface sampling program. These efforts are designed to better understand the geochemistry and deportment of lithium in subsurface soils and the depth and chemistry of potential brine of the La Salada salar.
Allan Barry Laboucan, President and CEO of Alset Energy said: "This work will form the first part of our exploration program on the lithium salars near Zacatecas, Mexico. The La Salada salar has seen significant historical work and our own chemical analysis and leaching tests are guiding our drilling and sampling program. We are very excited about the ability to now generate our own samples to better understand the lithium potential of the salar and to determine its depth extent. This drilling and sampling program will give us new material for leaching tests and to help direct our future development of this lithium and potassium bearing salar."
Drilling and Sampling Program
Initially, two holes will be drilled to evaluate depth to bedrock and brine potential in the La Salada salar. Material collected during drilling will be sampled and sent in for geochemical analysis to better understand the vertical distribution of lithium and geochemical nature of the salar at depth.
Additionally, Alset will carry out a subsurface sampling program on a 100-meter grid across the entire salar. The primary focus of this work is to enhance the Company's understanding of the near surface chemical composition of the salar infill material and most importantly, its lithium content. Furthermore, Alset intends to resample some locations of the historical grid sampling carried out on the salar as a means to validate historical results.
Alset is also planning to use material collected from the drilling and sampling programs for scoping metallurgical testing to add confidence to previous leaching tests done with La Salada salar materials (see Company news release dated: 2017-03-03).
The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Emily Hanson, PGeo, who is a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101.