Managing director Stephen Promnitz was in Argentina to sign the LoI with Catamarca State mining and energy entity CAMYEN House to accelerate development of the Kachi project.

CAMYEN can assist in the areas of permitting and exploration.

Kachi covers 50,000 hectares of known salt lakes, near Albemarle’s Antofalla project.

Speaking at the Perth leg of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s World Tour today, Promnitz said Kachi was a “large, undrilled” project with the potential for discovery, thanks to positive surface results.

The company is aiming to start drilling as soon as possible, but is waiting for approvals.

While early stage, Promnitz said it wasn’t too early to begin discussions with potential partners.

“The key thing I think Orocobre did right in Argentina was getting the right partner early,” he said.

The company has had initial discussions with offtake partners in China, Japan and Korea, but said it was Indian buyers showing the most interest.

Lake had around A$1.4 million cash at the end of June and is fully funded to complete work at Kachi and its other Argentinean lithium projects this year.

The company’s shares dropped by 15.8% to 4.8c after jumping by more than 26.6% over last week.