TORONTO, Feb. 27, 2017 /CNW/ - LSC Lithium
Corporation (the "Company" or "LSC") (TSXV: LSC) (formerly Oakham
Capital Corp.; NEX: OKM.H) is pleased to announce that it has
received final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") for
its qualifying transaction (the "Qualifying Transaction") under the
rules of the TSX-V's Capital Pool Program, and will recommence
trading at the open on February 28,
2017 under the trading symbol LSC. It will no longer be
considered a Capital Pool Company.
LSC was established to acquire, explore and develop lithium
brine projects in Northern
Argentina and has amassed a large portfolio of prospective
lithium rich salars. LSC's four flagship properties, the Salar Rio
Grande Tenements, Salar Pastos Grandes Tenements, Salar Salinas
Grandes Tenements and Salar Jama Tenements are located in the
"Lithium Triangle," an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile where the world's most abundant lithium
brine deposits are found. In addition, LSC holds an option over
almost the entire Salar de Pozuelos.
Overall, LSC holds, or has under option, a land package portfolio
totaling approximately 270,000 hectares of prospective lithium
salar holdings.
Qualifying Transaction
On February 22, 2017, LSC
announced the closing of its Qualifying Transaction involving the
acquisition of LSC Lithium Inc. ("LSC Lithium") by way of a
"three-cornered amalgamation" pursuant to the provisions of the
Business Corporations Act (British
Columbia). The Qualifying Transaction has now received all
final approvals, including the final approval of the TSX-V. In
conjunction with the closing of the Qualifying Transaction, Wolrige
Mahon LLP will resign and KPMG LLP, Chartered Professional
Accountants, will be appointed as auditors.
Prior to the closing of the Qualifying Transaction, LSC Lithium
completed a private placement financing of 30,769,231 subscription
receipts at a price of C$1.30 each
for aggregate gross proceeds of C$40,000,000. With the recent private placement
financing, the Company has raised approximately C$74 million to date. The total number of issued
and outstanding common shares of LSC at the commencement of trading
will be 84,695,841 on a non-diluted basis and 108,707,183 on a
fully-diluted basis.
LSC's largest shareholder is Enirgi Group, which owns 18.19% of
the common shares of LSC. Enirgi Group is a privately held
multinational conglomerate with six unique global divisions. On
December 12, 2016, a subsidiary of
LSC acquired a 100% undivided interest in certain material
properties pursuant to a purchase agreement with ADY Resources
Limited ("ADY"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enirgi
Group.
LSC has also entered into agreements with Enirgi Group for the
provision of management and technical support services. LSC will
also have exclusive access in Argentina to Enirgi Group's proprietary
processing technology – Direct Xtraction Process Technology – which
processes raw brines directly into lithium compounds without solar
evaporation. LSC anticipates beginning testing of its brines in the
second quarter of this year at Enirgi Group's demonstration plant
located at its Salar del Rincón project in Salta, Argentina.
"LSC has assembled a large portfolio of high quality
lithium brine projects and an experienced team, which means we are
a lithium company, not a lithium hopeful. The properties LSC has
strategically selected are not unexplored grassroots projects -
real hard dollars have been spent in the ground defining the brine
deposits and ensuring they have the characteristics required to fit
our future plans. Our flagship projects all have a known
exploration history and extractable lithium atoms. In addition to a
large portfolio of quality development projects, LSC has entered a
strategic partnership with Enirgi Group that will provide exclusive
access to game-changing extraction technology and a team of 200+
seasoned engineers, geologists, technologists and
tradespersons." commented Wayne Richardson, Chairman, President and Chief
Executive Officer of LSC.
Operational Update
LSC will continue the business of LSC Lithium and its
subsidiaries. The primary objectives of LSC will be the
identification, acquisition, exploration and, if warranted,
development of lithium brine salars in Argentina. LSC intends to carry out
exploration programs as recommended in the National Instrument
43-101 ("NI-43-101") report (the "Technical Report")
titled "Review of Four Lithium Exploration Properties in
Argentina" prepared on
January 27, 2017 with an effective
date of December 31, 2016 (and
available under LSC's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com) and to
acquire interests in additional lithium brine salars located in
Argentina. LSC aims to accumulate
a significant land holding in Argentina that it believes to be prospective
for lithium resources and to become a significant supplier of
lithium to the global market.
Properties
The material property interests acquired by LSC (the
"Properties") are located in: (i) salar Rio Grande in
southwestern Salta Province of
Argentina ("Salar Rio Grande
Tenements"); (ii) salar Pastos Grandes, located south of
Salar Salinas Grandes in
Salta Province of Argentina ("Salar Pastos Grandes
Tenements"); (iii) salar Jama in the Jujuy Province of
Argentina at the border with
Chile ("Salar Jama
Tenements"), and (iv) salar Salinas Grandes in the Salta and
Jujuy Provinces of Argentina,
("Salar Salinas Grandes Tenements"). In total, the
Properties cover 51,760 hectares, of which LSC has an attributable
interest of 49,310 hectares or 95% of the total. All of the
Properties are located in relatively close proximity to each other
as well as to Enirgi Group's Salar del Rincón project.
LSC has not completed any exploration activity on the
Properties.
No mineral resources or reserves have been defined on any of the
Properties. References herein to potential grades on the
Properties are historic and conceptual in nature. There has
been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and
there can be no assurance that further geologic work will result in
mineral resources being delineated on the Properties.
Salar Rio Grande Tenements
Salar Rio Grande located in southwestern Salta Province, has been a significant past
producer of sodium sulphate. ADY operated on the salar for several
years, with the last production being in 2013.
Exploration work by ADY on the Salar Rio Grande Tenements has
included (i) geological mapping and shallow surface sampling (142
samples to 1 m depth) in 2011, (ii) 33 HQ diamond drill holes for
1653 m, 2 reverse circulation drilling holes for piezometers, 8
pumping wells to maximum depth of 100 m (31 at 50 m, 1 at 75 m, 1
at 100 m) in 2011, and (iii) an environmental impact statement
report in 2015.
Average assay values for the surface sampling were 42 g/L for
sodium sulphate and 380 mg/L for lithium. Assay values for samples
from packer tests were 44 g/L for sodium sulphate and showed a
range from 220 to 420 mg/L for lithium. Average Mg:Li ratios for
the packer samples were in the range of 12:1 to 13:1; with
SO4:Li ratios typically in the 100:1 range. The
estimated porosity for the Salar Rio Grande Tenements down to 50 m
depth was 13.5%, based on analysis of drill core by ADY.
Salar Pastos Grandes Tenements
Previous work by other companies on other tenements on salar
Pastos Grandes has been completed, however, ADY has undertaken no
exploration work on the Salar Pastos Grandes Tenements.
Alonso and Sorentino in their 2009 report reported the following
brine assays for salar Pastos Grande (Table 1):
Table 1: Average Brine Assay Values – salar Pastos Grandes
Cl (%)
|
SO4
(%)
|
B2O3 (%)
|
K (%)
|
Na (%)
|
Li (%)
|
Mg (%)
|
Ca (%)
|
15.0
|
0.9
|
0.019
|
0.82
|
9.33
|
0.043
|
0.39
|
0.044
|
These data compare to other third party sources showing the
following average assay values (Table 2):
Table 2: Average Brine Assay Values – salar Pastos Grandes
SO4
(g/L)
|
B4O7
(g/L)
|
K
(g/L)
|
Na
(g/L)
|
Li
(g/L)
|
Mg
(g/L)
|
Ca
(g/L)
|
Cl
(g/L)
|
7.78
|
1.89
|
3.55
|
121.0
|
0.317
|
2.12
|
0.80
|
192.6
|
Source: Lithia Inc.
The foregoing brine assay values are based on third party
historic disclosure which has not been verified by the Company and
may not be representative of mineralization on adjacent tenements
held or to be held by LSC. No assurances can be made that similar
results will be obtained on the Salar Pastos Grandes Tenements held
by LSC.
Salar Jama Tenements
Salar Jama is located in the
Jujuy Province of Argentina at the
border with Chile. Segemar, the Argentine Geological Survey,
completed a program of geological mapping, shallow surface sampling
and trenching for delineation of borate mineralization on salar
Jama in 2008. Cuper S.A. ("Cuper"), a 51% held subsidiary of
LSC, completed a program of shallow surface sampling in 2015 and
engaged K-UTEC AG Salt Technologies ("K-UTEC") to complete a
conceptual scoping study for the project based on use of solar
evaporation. No resource or reserve estimate was made in connection
with the K-UTEC report. Cuper also completed an Environmental
Impact Study ("EIS") Level I report on a portion of the
Salar Jama Tenements in 2015. The results of the surface sampling
by Cuper indicate good lithium values and favourable Mg:Li ratios
for the major part of salar Jama in the north. Due diligence
sampling by LSC across the 5000 hectare northern portion of the
salar support the surface sampling results obtained by Cuper.
Sampling by ADY in 2010 on the Nueva Ilusion tenement in the
southern portion of the salar returned low lithium values of less
than 5 mg/L.
Salar Salinas Grandes Tenements
Salar Salinas Grandes is a large
salar located in both the Salta and Jujuy Provinces of Argentina. The Salar Salinas Grandes Tenements
on the northwestern side of salar Salinas Grandes are found
primarily on mud flats with some limited extension into the salt
flat in the south end. Exploration work by ADY in 2009 in this area
consisted of collection of shallow pit (1.5 m deep maximum) samples
on a 2 km x 2 km grid and three shallow auger drill holes (maximum
depth of 7 m), with collection of samples at 1 m intervals.
The results of the surface sampling work indicated the phreatic
level occurred between 5 cm and 80 cm below surface level and that
lithium grades varied from 227 mg/L to 2090 mg/L in the evapoflat
(salt flat) area and from 2 mg/L to 55 mg/L in the mud flat zones
with the phreatic level varying between 15 cm to 1.3 m below
surface. The auger drill results showed that lithium grades
increase moving into salar Salinas Grandes and that lithium grades
decrease rapidly with depth. In 2010, ADY completed a surface
sampling program (1 m deep pit samples) on a 250 m x 250 m or 500 m
x 500 m grid pattern for the tenements located on certain Salar
Salinas Grande Tenements in the Salta and Jujuy Provinces of
Argentina.
Other Matters
The TSX-V has approved the transfer of 42,307 common shares of
LSC between former directors of LSC, which shares are held in
escrow pursuant to a CPC Escrow Agreement dated January 15, 2011.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical information on the Properties
included in this press release is based upon information prepared
and approved by Donald H. Hains,
P.Geo and is included in the Technical Report. Donald H. Hains is a qualified person, as
defined in NI 43-101 and is independent of LSC and LSC Lithium.
ABOUT LSC:
LSC is an emerging lithium producer which has amassed a large
portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars in Northern Argentina. LSC's four flagship
properties, the Salar Rio Grande Tenements, Salar Pastos Grandes
Tenements, Salar Salinas Grandes Tenements and Salar Jama Tenements
are located in the "Lithium Triangle," an area at the intersection
of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile where the world's most abundant lithium
brine deposits are found. LSC holds, or has under option, a land
package portfolio totaling approximately 270,000 hectares, which
represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in
Argentina.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this news release constitute
forward-looking information. These statements relate to future
events or future performance, including statements as to the
following: timing for potential future production at our
properties, the use and application of Enirgi Group's Direct
Xtraction Process Technology at our properties, testing of brines
at Enirgi Group's demonstration plant at the Salar del Rincon,
completion of work programs on our properties, the acquisition of
properties under option or new properties and the ongoing
strategic relationship with Enirgi Group.
The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect",
"believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions
and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts
are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based
on LSC's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing
of such future events. Whether actual results and
developments will conform with LSC's expectations is subject to a
number of risks and uncertainties including factors underlying
management's assumptions, such as risks related to exploration and
the establishment of resources and reserves; the application and
future licensing of new technologies; the risks around
timing, funding and construction of a regional processing facility
at the Salar del Rincon by Enirgi Group and the ability of
LSC to fast-track production from its own properties by supplying
brine to such a facility; risks relating to proposed
acquisitions; volatility in lithium prices and the market for
lithium; exchange rate fluctuations; the requirement for
significant additional funds for development that may not be
available; changes in national and local government legislation,
including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies
and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic
developments in Argentina or
elsewhere; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to
interests on any of the properties in which the Company holds an
interest; excessive cost escalation as well as development,
permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on
any of the Company's properties; risks and hazards associated with
the business of development and mining on any of the Company's
properties. Actual future results may differ
materially. The forward-looking information contained in this
release is made as of the date hereof and LSC is not obligated to
update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as
required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks,
uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should
not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The
foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking
information contained herein. For more information see the
Company's filing statement on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation
Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the
TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release. Investors are cautioned that,
except as disclosed in the filing statement prepared in connection
with the Qualifying Transaction, any information released or
received with respect to the Qualifying Transaction may not be
accurate or complete and should not be relied upon.
The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor
disapproved the contents of this press release.
SOURCE LSC Lithium Corporation