Jul 23 2019
Brazil Minerals, Inc. (the "Company" or "Brazil Minerals") announced that it has expanded its lithium footprint in Brazil over 32-fold to now 9,677 acres by adding three lithium claims totaling 9,389 acres in the state of Minas Gerais last week.
Brazilian lithium comes primarily from hard-rock spodumene deposits recognized as one of the highest-quality in the world due to lower impurities and thus better suited for high technology applications such as batteries for electric vehicles and portable computing devices. Besides Brazil, there are only a few significant spodumene deposits globally, such as one in Canada being developed by Nemaska Lithium.
Areli Nogueira, Senior Geological Engineer at Brazil Minerals, commented:
There are three major districts in the Litiniferous Pegmatite Province of Minas Gerais and our claims provide us with excellent potential presence in one of these districts. In fact, two of our areas are only one mile from a known lithium ore formation contained in a main gemstone mine. Gemstones such as beryllium, aquamarine, and tourmaline occur in the same pegmatites as spodumene and other lithium-bearing minerals.”
Besides spodumene [LiAl(SiO₃)₂], other minerals containing lithium that are found locally include petalite [LiAlSi₄O₁₀], amblygonite [(Li,Na)AlPO4(F,OH)], and lepidolite [K(Li,Al,Rb)2(Al,Si)4O10(F,OH)2]. A photograph of Mr. Areli holding a sample of hard-rock spodumene is attached below.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cd5ff288-e438-4de1-9f9c-c832b5894725
Marc Fogassa, CEO of Brazil Minerals, commented:
Our primary focus is mining gold and diamond, and continuing to strengthen our balance sheet. In parallel, we continue with active analytical intelligence regarding areas we consider key to our expansion. High-quality lithium is rare and demand continues to rise, and as such the markets provide attractive valuations to public companies exploring it. The addition of these high potential hard-rock spodumene areas from Minas Gerais is timely and strategic for us and substantially enhances our portfolio.”
Brazil Minerals is starting studies on these new areas immediately. Demand is evident as representatives from companies based in Australia, Bolivia, China and Russia have recently visited the Minas Gerais lithium districts in search of opportunities.