Gold Mountain (ASX: GMN) will keep a foot planted on the Salitre lithium project in Brazil that is now set to become a joint venture (JV) operation that it will share with Alderan Resources (ASX: AL8) and Mars Mines as part of a new earn-in deal.
The company today detailed an agreement that will allow Alderan to grab up to 80 per cent of Salitre, while it will hold the remaining 20 per cent equally with Mars if the two-stage earn-in plan comes together. The move will allow Gold Mountain – which currently has 75 per cent of the Salitre ownership, to retain exposure to exploration upside at the project, while also narrowing its focus on its diverse portfolio of mineral holdings that feature gold, copper, lithium and rare earths.
The new JV vehicle at Salitre will be an Australian company known as JVCo. Alderan, a critical metals explorer in Brazil and the United States, will be required to spend US$316,000 (AU$477,000) on the tenements to claim an initial 36 per cent of the project, but wants to grab the ultimate 80 per cent slice.
In the final wash-up, Gold Mountain and Mars will each have a 10 per cent free-carried interest in JVCo up until a decision to mine.
The Salitre project consists of five granted exploration permits extending through an area of 66.5 square kilometres in the eastern Brazilian State of Bahia. Since its acquisition of the ground a year ago, Gold Mountain has undertaken reconnaissance mapping and three phases of soil sampling on both of the contiguous South and North Salitre areas.
An initial phase comprised a small program of five 100m-spaced, north-west/south-east-oriented sampling lines, with samples collected every 25m from the Salitre South ground. A second phase comprised 855 samples picked up at 50m intervals on 400m-spaced east-west lines at Salitre North, which was followed up with 200m-spaced infill soil lines and also extended the grid a further 1.6km southwards.
The soil sampling program in Salitre North identified extensive lithium anomalism exceeding 60 parts per million lithium in an area measuring about 4.5km north-south by 1km east-west.
The anomalism intensifies southwards and suggests some potential to extend further south to merge with elevated lithium soil responses at Salitre South. If the unsampled area between the Salitre North and South anomalism can be shown to be mineralised, the overall potential strike of the lithium signature through both tenements could be extended to as much as 9km.
Soil lithium grades are reported up to 134.5ppm lithium, while strong correlation is also noted between lithium and caesium, beryllium, niobium and tin – all of which are considered positive indicators for LCT (lithium-caesium-tantalum) pegmatite fertility.
In Salitre North, a second big, but diffuse lithium anomaly with a weak north-easterly trend indicates additional potential and warrants follow-up investigation. Weathered pegmatites that have never been drilled were identified during mapping in four areas in the Salitre South area, but they were not sampled.
While Gold Mountain will keep a keen eye on what plays out for Alderan at Salitre, the market will also be watching for what it can eke out from its other prospective holdings in Brazil and Papua New Guinea.
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