Pure Energy Minerals Announces Filing of NI 43-101 Inferred Resource Technical Report for its Nevada Lithium Brine Project
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2015 / Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: PE) (FSE: AHG1.F) (OTCQB: HMGLF) (the "Company" or "Pure Energy") is pleased to announce that it has filed a technical report detailing an Inferred Resource estimate of the Company's Clayton Valley Lithium Brine Project, in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"). The independent technical report, titled "Inferred Resource Estimate For Lithium, Clayton Valley South Project, Clayton Valley, Esmeralda County, Nevada, USA" (the "Clayton Valley Project" and the "Technical Report"), dated July 17, 2015 was prepared for the Company by Raymond P. Spanjers, P.G., of North Carolina, USA, a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101 and independent of the Company. The Technical Report is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and is available on the Company's website at www.pureenergyminerals.com.
The Technical Report outlines an Inferred Resource estimate on the Clayton Valley Project of 816,000 metric tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE), present as easily-extractible brine in two aquifers (Main Ash Aquifer and Lower Aquifer System) beneath the Company's 8,004 acres of claims. The claims are comprised of three contiguous blocks and overlie a deep basin structure. The in-situ lithium brine resource was estimated as follows:
Zone
Brine Volume (km3)
Average Li Grade mg/L
Lithium Resource LCE (metric tonnes)
Northern Zone Upper Part of Main Ash Aquifer
0.019
102
10,300
Northern Zone Main Ash Aquifer
0.016
370
31,700
Northern Zone Lower Aquifer System
0.158
194
163,000
Southern Zone Main Ash Aquifer
0.451
102
245,000
Southern Zone Lower Aquifer System
1.857
37
366,000
Total
816,000
Note: Average effective porosity of 0.34 was used in brine volume calculations. LCE is the industry standard terminology for, and is equivalent to, Li2CO3. 1 mg/L Li metal is equivalent to 5.32 mg/L LCE and no other components of the brine were used to derive the LCE estimate. All other pertinent assumptions are discussed in the Technical Report.
To advance the Clayton Valley Project towards an Inferred Resource, the Company completed an intensive exploration programme consisting of drilling two new boreholes to a maximum depth of 970 ft. (296 m); installing one production-style well and completing long-term pumping tests; conducting detailed gravity surveys in the northern part of the claims; downhole geophysics; a cutting-edge seismic-reflection survey across the entire claim area; and geological mapping and analysis of a wide range of brine and soil samples. In addition, the Company was able to use data from two previous boreholes that had been drilled on the Project. Using these data, the Independent Qualified Professional was able to determine the following key aspects of the resource:
All four boreholes drilled to date have encountered lithium-brines;
The boreholes drilled have not found the base of the lithium brine-bearing zones;
The zones that host the brines appear to extend much deeper into the basin and extend laterally effectively continuously throughout the whole claim area of Pure Energy;
Pumping tests show that the brine can be sustainably pumped at rates equivalent to those used for production on the adjacent Silver Peak property; and,
The Inferred Resource of 816,000 metric tonnes of LCE was estimated using conservative parameters (details in the technical report www.pureenergyminerals.com).
The Resource Estimate was based on two main aquifer units, the Main Ash Aquifer (which was fully penetrated by all four boreholes) and the Lower Aquifer System (none of the boreholes found the base of this lithium-brine bearing aquifer), and used average lithium concentrations in the brine of 370-37 ppm, and total saturated thicknesses of the combined aquifers of 366 m in the northern section and 220 m in the southern section. Full details of the resource calculation are provided in the publically available report. Lithium concentrations and the saturated thickness of the brine-bearing zones were based solely on data from the boreholes, and the lateral extent of the aquifers was based on geophysical data. It is believed that the Resource Estimate is conservative given that the base of the lithium brine-bearing zone has not been found yet, and geophysics suggests that it extends significantly deeper than the maximum depth drilled to date.
Robert Mintak, Pure Energy's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "This initial resource estimate is an important step in validating the Clayton Valley Lithium Brine Project and its potential. The current estimate is based on an average thickness of 300 metres only. The next stages of drilling will test the depth and potential extension of the deposit and test new zones recently discovered from our seismic reflection survey. This is an exciting time for Pure Energy, as we successfully complete key milestones of project development on-time and on-budget and are able to communicate to our investors the tremendous magnitude and potential of this strategically important resource."
Qualified Person and Quality Control/Quality Assurance
Gerhard Jacob, P.Geo, EFG (European Geologist), is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, and has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Jacob, P.Geo is not independent of the Company as he is a director.
About Pure Energy:
Pure Energy is a lithium-brine resource developer with a focus on becoming the lowest cost, lithium supplier for the burgeoning lithium battery industry in North America. Pure Energy is currently focused on the development of our prospective Clayton Valley South Lithium Brine Project, which has the following key attributes:
Three main claim areas, covering approximately 8000 acres in the southern half of Clayton Valley, Esmeralda County, Nevada, located next to the only producing lithium operation in the United States; Albemarle's Silver Peak lithium brine mine.
Through drilling and exploration work to date, the Company has established an Inferred Resource (in accordance with NI 43-101) of 816,000 metric tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE).
The Company is undertaking pre-feasibility level work to better understand the economics and feasibility of using modern processing techniques to convert the Clayton Valley South brines into the high purity lithium products required for new energy storage uses.
Pure Energy is aligned with global technology partners focused on innovative solutions for lithium brine processing. Through process testing work on Clayton Valley brines with Tenova Bateman, the Company has received lab scale results achieving >99.9 % lithium recovery and produced a LiCl solution with a purity greater than 99.9%. Tenova's LiSX technology works on brine with Li concentrations as low as 14 PPM. The Company has recently shipped brine samples to Korean Multi National POSCO's research facility to begin process testing using POSCO's proprietary lithium extraction technology.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
"Robert Mintak"
Chief Executive Officer
CONTACT: Pure Energy Minerals Ltd.www.pureenergyminerals.com info@pureenergyminerals.com Phone - 604 608 6611 ext 5
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SOURCE: Pure Energy Minerals Ltd.