Australia-listed Power Minerals is on the cusp of signing a binding offtake, funding and logistics agreement with Shanghai-listed Xiamen Xiangya New Energy for the Salta Lithium project, in Argentina.
Power and Xiamen signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in July last year under which both parties have conducted due diligence on the project, with Xiamen having completed a 40 litre bulk sample test of brines from three different salares at the Salta project.
The final component of Xiamen’s due diligence was the successful delivery of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) at the Rincon salar, which was published last week.
The PEA confirmed Rincon salar’s potential to become a significant long-life supplier of high purity, battery-grade lithium carbonate equivalent.
Based on the successful outcomes of the PEA, the parties have now moved to the next stage of the MoU, with a view to executing binding agreements in respect of funding, logistics and offtake for the Rincon salar.
As a next step in this process, Xiamen has provided Rincon brines to its battery manufacturer, for qualification testing at its facility in China. This independent testing will assist future funding and offtake negotiations in respect of the Rincon salar.
“The final piece of the due diligence process was the delivery of a successful PEA for the Rincon salar, and with the PEA delivering robust project economics, Xiamen is keen to advance the MoU, with independent third-party testing of the Rincon brines. Successful outcomes from this work would represent another step towards securing binding funding and offtake agreements for the Rincon salar,” says Power MD Mena Habib.