With lithium again flavour of the month, and some big announcements from peers Lake Resources and Lithium Power International in recent days, Argosy managing director Jerko Zuvela said the company is making big strides at its two North American projects.

 

The stage one 2000 tonne per annum modular commercial plant at Rincon is "making significant progress on construction and development works", with the company estimating 40% of total construction works are now complete.

 

That includes almost 80% of site works, 70% of the brine system, and 20% of the process plant.

 

Completion of construction is targeted for April 2022, allowing the company to move into commissioning and ramp-up of its maiden development.

 

The company claims its proprietary chemical process technology requires less energy and raw water consumption than conventional brine processing operations, with plans to return up to 90% of the brines into the salar.

 

In recent days it has also announced its intention to draw power from a French-owned 208 megawatt solar farm that is being constructed adjacent to Rincon, which should dramatically cut its carbon emissions - a boon for buyers looking for the greener sources of lithium.

 

Argosy's ultimate goal is to plough the cash from stage one sales into an expansion to 10,000tpa, with options to 15,000tpa also being studied.

 

Funding and offtake discussions are ongoing.

 

Separately, in Nevada, magnetotelluric surveys have defined three lithium brine targets at the Tonopah project.

 

Tonopah is adjacent to Albemarle's Silver Peak lithium operation, the only operating lithium operation in the US, where a US$30-50 million expansion is underway to double production towards 10,000tpa.

 

The targets sit between 300-1500m and conform with gravity anomalies.

 

Argosy's next step will be to drill the shallowest targets to depths between 800-1200m to assess if lithium brines exist in the area.

 

Argosy had A$28 million cash at the end of June, with the company raising $30 million via a 13c per share placement in February. 

 

Shares in the junior were last traded at 20.5c, just below the 21.5c peak it hit in February, valuing it at $256 million. The stock was below 5c 12 months ago.