Dec 15 2017
NRG Metals Inc., is pleased to announce the completion of the first drill hole at the Salar Escondido Lithium Project, Catamarca Province, Argentina. The hole was drilled to a depth of 307 meters due to hole conditions The hole bottomed in brine and the brine target remains open at depth.
At a depth of 210 meters the hole was converted from core drilling to tricone rotary drilling due to challenging drilling conditions. Now that the hole has been terminated, the interval from 307 to 210 meters will be sampled using either a double packer or bailer system, depending upon the conditions in the hole.
Consistent with the Company’s geophysical data and geological model, the target zone of sediments saturated with brine that could contain lithium was intersected at 140 meters, and has continued to the completed depth of 307 meters with the brine zone target open below that depth. Recent sampling in the interval from 183 to 198 meters returned an average of 229 mg/liter lithium as reported in the Company’s press release dated December 7, 2017. Onsite quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) was supervised by Mr. William Feyerabend, a Certified Professional Geologist and a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. Mr. Feyerabend supervised and approves the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this press release.
Adrian Hobkirk, CEO of NRG Metals Inc., commented, “We are very excited that we have a lithium saturated brine confirmed near the top of the target zone at Salar Escondido and the fact that the brine zone now appears to be very thick. Given that our current drilling bottoms in brine and is open at depth is very encouraging highlighting the substantial size potential of the salar. We look forward to reporting the sampling in progress and continuing the exploration at Salar Escondido to fully assess and delineate this discovery.”
The Salar Escondido is a large basin, roughly 20 by 40 kilometers in size, which is mostly covered by a series of overlapping alluvial fans. NRG’s technical team believes that a large salar with an area of at least 700 km2 had developed in the basin approximately two million years ago. After the salar was formed, it was buried by coalescing alluvial fans, and it is thus considered to be a “paleo-salar,” hence the name Salar Escondido, which means “hidden salar” in Spanish.