Bacanora Minerals secures land access to Sonora Project

Lithium exploration and development company Bacanora Minerals announced on Thursday that access and surface rights have been secured for its flagship Sonora Project in Mexico.

The AIM-traded firm said the development was in line with its strategy to construct an open-pit mine and large-scale beneficiation processing facility at Sonora, which it described as “one of the world's larger” lithium deposits.

A feasibility study for a 35,000 tonnes per annum lithium carbonate operation at Sonora was on course for completion in late 2017.

The access and surface rights mainly related to the land area covering mineral resources contained within the La Ventana, Fleur and El Sauz areas.

Bacanora said it entered into binding agreements to acquire the freehold to two parcels of land which, following completion of the feasibility study, will provide it with unrestricted access to develop the project and operate it for the initial life-of-mine.

The Sonora Lithium Project consists of ten contiguous concessions covering 97,389 hectares, approximately 190 kilometres northeast of the city of Hermosillo in Sonora State, Mexico and 200 kilometres south of the border with Arizona in the US.

Its board said “significant progress” had been made towards the completion of the study by the end of 2017.

The mass balances, energy balances and detailed flow sheets had now been completed, and all of the vendor quotes for the supply of equipment had been received and were being evaluated.

Reagent and chemical supply pricing was also received, with final quotes for the long-term energy supply being evaluated.

Over the coming weeks, Bacanora said the final operating and capital costs would be developed in order to complete the feasibility study.

The pilot plant in Hermosillo was continuing to operate to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate product samples, the board added, and the company was receiving ongoing feedback from future customers in Asia and Europe regarding the quality of the product.

It said it continued to focus on the high quality of Sonora lithium carbonate products as being a “strong differentiator” from other new lithium projects.

“Securing access and surface rights for the large and scalable Sonora Project represents another major milestone towards delivering on our objective to develop a world class lithium mining operation at Sonora,” said Bacanora CEO Peter Secker.

“Today's news closely follows the recent Sonora Government Environmental Approval for the Sonora Lithium Project.”