MinRes to put lithium mine on ice, to cut 300 jobs
The company will put its Bald Hill lithium mine in Western Australia under care and maintenance starting this week.
AmeriLithium Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: AMEL; “AmeriLithium” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with Magee Geophysical Services (“Magee”) to commence the first stage of its Geophysical exploration on the Company’s Clayton Deep Lithium brine project in Clayton Valley, Nevada, on Monday, August 15, 2011.
Magee, who specialize in gravity data collection and have extensive experience in the Clayton Valley area, will perform a gravity survey to assist in the delineation of bedrock surface depth along with topography and identification of paleostructures underlying AmeriLithium’s Clayton Deep property. These potential traps and conduits for Lithium brine accumulation will be tested further by other more focused techniques as suggested by the results of the gravity survey. The gravity survey is expected to take a maximum of 8 days, including mobilization and demobilization. Additional details regarding the gravity survey appear below.
AmeriLithium owns 100% of the 5,280-acre (8.25 square mile) Clayton Deep Lithium brine project, covering the entire Southwest Gravity Low in Clayton Valley. The Clayton Deep project’s placer claims lie less than 10 miles southwest of the only US-based Lithium producing plant, operated by Chemetall Foote Corporation, a subsidiary of Rockwood Holdings, Inc. The plant has been in production since 1967, producing an estimated 50 million kg (55,000+ tons) of Lithium to date from the region’s rich brines.(1) Chemetall’s exploration of the area immediately around the plant extends to within less than one mile of the northeast corner of AmeriLithium’s Clayton Deep holdings.(2)
Recent visits to the Clayton Deep site by members of the AmeriLithium team have discovered black obsidian spread over a wide area of the surface. A report published in 2000 by Jonathan Price et al on the possible source of Lithium in brines in Clayton Valley confirms that, in the Montezuma Range that borders the valley to the east, the area’s anomalously high amounts of Lithium are most concentrated in unweathered obsidian (as well as in relatively unweathered ash-flow tuff). The report indicates that the Montezuma Range’s rhyolite (i.e., a fine-grained extrusive volcanic rock) is one of the most Lithium-rich rhyolites in the world, with unweathered black obsidian samples containing 125 to 228 ppm Lithium.(3)
“We’re excited to be taking first steps toward realizing the potential of our Clayton Deep property,” said Matthew Worrall, AmeriLithium’s Chief Executive Officer. “Having already encountered Lithium and promising results from our first drill program on our nearby Paymaster Canyon Lithium brine project, we’re now looking to develop our exploration program in Nevada.”
Once the gravity survey data is acquired, it will be analyzed and interpreted by consulting geophysicist, Mr. Jim Wright of J.L. Wright Geophysics. Mr. Wright is a professional geophysicist with over 40 years experience in the field of geophysical investigations and interpretation. He has considerable experience in interpreting gravity survey data over much of the State of Nevada, and brings a wealth of knowledge of local geologic variations in the Clayton Valley area.
GRAVITY SURVEY DETAILS
The first phase of geophysical exploration on the Clayton Deep property will be designed to more fully delineate the Southwest Gravity Low in Clayton Valley, Nevada, which was first identified by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1980. The gravity anomaly, which is entirely covered by AmeriLithium’s property, is the deepest indicated bedrock surface in Clayton Valley, and represents a thick sequence of basin sediments. The Southwest Gravity Low is indicative of the potential for evaporate and brine deposits that may contain similarly high concentrations of Lithium as they do in the nearby producing properties of Chemetall Foote.
The gravity stations will be surveyed at locations as specified by the Company at nominal intervals of 500 meters on lines spaced 1000 meters apart. The total program is expected to be approximately 113 stations. Gravity will be measured with a resolution of 0.01 mGal. A GPS system capable of centimeter XYZ accuracy will be used for navigation and positioning.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
More information on the Clayton Deep Lithium brine project, and additional information regarding the Company, can be found at AmeriLithium’s corporate website www.amerilithium.com along with the facility to sign up for regular news updates.
ABOUT LITHIUM: Lithium is a lightweight metal used in a wide range of consumer products the world over: the medical industry uses Lithium as an anti-depressant; industrial uses include glass, ceramic and porcelain enamel manufacture; the aviation industry uses Lithium in alloys. Of particular interest is the use of Lithium for battery production, which has expanded significantly in recent years due to rechargeable Lithium batteries being used increasingly in electrical tools and in the rapidly expanding portable electronics market. Furthermore, the next generation of hybrid and electric vehicles are being designed to use high-capacity Lithium-ion batteries as environmentally-friendly fuel alternatives while the Obama administration has introduced $5 billion in funding and incentives for the development of a secure, domestic battery industry with special focus on Lithium-ion batteries.
ABOUT AMERILITHIUM: AmeriLithium is a publicly traded (NASD OTC BB: AMEL), mining company committed to progressively developing into one of the leading American players in the global Lithium industry. The Company is headquartered in Henderson, NV. AmeriLithium has amassed a Lithium portfolio consisting of ~724,000 acres, including three Nevada-based projects nearby the only Lithium producing plant in the US, a large project in Alberta, Canada, and a project in Western Australia.
