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Rolling back environmental regulations and speeding up permitting for oil and gas as well as mining projects could put pressure on Canada to do the same.
Advance Gold (TSXV: AAX) announced that it is entering the battery metals space by acquiring 13 lithium-potassium-boron prospective salars (salt flats) in central Mexico.
In a press release, Advance said its Mexican subsidiary has signed a purchase agreement for the projects with Hot Spring Mining, a private local company.
Hot Spring will retain a 10% carried interest through to production that will convert to a participating interest upon commercial production.
Materials from the salt flats in Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí are amenable to magnetic and heavy mineral separation, creating a concentrate that reacts favourably to common leaching methods for lithium recovery
To go ahead with the deal, the Canadian miner has to pay 5 million shares upon regulatory approval of the agreement and purchase a test plant built by Hot Spring Mining and a linked patented extraction method for $150,000 within two years.
“We are excited to diversify our portfolio of projects with a group of lithium-potassium-boron prospective salars in central Mexico. There is a strong investor appetite for lithium projects due to the quest for alternative energy sources,” Allan Barry Laboucan, Advance Gold’s president and CEO, said in a media statement.
According to Laboucan, studies conducted by experts from the National Polytechnic Institute concluded that materials from the salars in Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí are amenable to magnetic and heavy mineral separation, creating a concentrate that reacts favourably to common leaching methods for lithium recovery over short periods of time and that yields high recoveries.
“The first order of business will be to begin bulk sampling of material from our salars, putting it through the test plant to further understand the economics of magnetic and heavy mineral separation and leaching characteristics,” the executive said. “These salars give us the potential for near-term lithium production and complement our efforts in precious metals exploration.”
