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The Canadian Energy Metals Board (formerly Macusani Yellowcake ) unveiled the first official estimate of the lithium resources for its Falchani project, discovered just nine months ago on the Uranium plateau of Macusani, Puno.
According to the report prepared by the consultant The Mineral Corporation, according to NI 43-101 (which certifies the validity of the discovery), Falchani contains 4.47 million tonnes of lithium carbonate in indicated and presumed resources, almost double the 2.5 million tonnes initially estimated.
"The estimated resource is based on drilling that covers an area of 1,250 meters over 350 to 500 meters, which represents about 20% of the potential of the deposit," says the company.
Laurence Stefan, Head of Plateau Operations, notes that the results confirm that Peru will become a great player in the lithium industry as well as other well-known South American producers , as Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.
However, there is a big difference, and these three countries extract lithium from salares, that is to say that they pick it up practically at ground level, which reduces considerably the costs.
Falchani, on the other hand, will require blasting and conventional mining processes because lithium is housed in the rock. Hence the high amount of estimated capital investment for the project: US $ 800 million, which includes the exploitation of uranium, another proverbial wealth of Macusani . the volumes to be extracted at Falchani will be larger because of their high lithium concentration: 3,500 parts per million (ppm).
"We think this lithium resource (4.7 million tonnes) will continue to grow with more drilling" comments Ted O. Connor, director of Plataeu .
next step in the Canadian plan will be to develop the Preliminary Economic Study (PEA), which will define the initial expenditures and the profitability of the project (2018) .If this is positive, it will proceed with the development of the project. 39, Feasibility Study (2019).
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