Weekly Report - 26 July 2018 (WR-18-29)

PERU | Lithium discovery. On 16 July local news sources cited Ulises Solís, the managing director of Macusani Yellowcake SAC, the Peruvian subsidiary of Canadian mining firm Plateau Energy Metals (PLU), as saying that the company had discovered 2.5m tonnes of “high grade” lithium in the Falchani deposit, in Peru’s Puno region. Solís said Macusani Yellowcake was looking for partners to invest some US$800m in mining the lithium and would carry out a feasibility study to be finished by the end of 2019. If constructed, the mine could become the largest in the world. Two days later PLU announced final results from preliminary metallurgical tests regarding lithium reserves in the Falchani deposit. In a press release, PLU’s interim CEO Ian Stalker is cited as saying that the results were “excellent” and tests confirmed that “battery grade quality Lithium Carbonate can be produced from our Falchani ‘high-grade’ lithium feed material”. South America’s lithium reserves had been thought to have been concentrated in the so-called ‘lithium triangle’, with Bolivia leading in quantity of reserves but trailing Chile and Argentina in terms of exploitation. As well as the lithium discovery, Solís also told reporters that exploration in the Falchini area had revealed 124m pounds of uranium deposit. However, currently no legislation exists regarding the mining of uranium in Peru and so Solís reportedly said the company would work to obtain legal permission to mine the radioactive material and would request that the government legislate on the issue.

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