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American Lithium to Fast-Track Completion of Pre-Feasibility Study for Falchani
Appoints DRA Global as Lead Engineer and Plans Near-Term Update of PEA
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, March 6, 2023 – American Lithium Corp. (“American Lithium” or the “Company”) (TSX-V:LI | NASDAQ-AML| Frankfurt:5LA1) is pleased to announce that it has appointed DRA Global (“DRA”) as lead engineer to coordinate completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”) on the Company’s Falchani Lithium Project in Southern Peru (“Falchani”).
As part of this process, Stantec Consulting Ltd. (“Stantec”) will also prepare an updated mineral resource estimate on Falchani which will involve the reclassification of existing resource categories, as well as including new drill data from the recent hydrology drilling which commenced in August 2022.
The Company also announces that it has restarted additional hydrology drilling at Falchani, with full support from the local communities. This drilling is part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) that was commenced in August 2022.
The first step towards completing a PFS will involve updating the Company’s existing Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for Falchani, which is expected to expedite the PFS process. The work required to update the PEA started in the second half of 2022 with a focus on incorporating Sulphate of Potash and Cesium by-products, which are expected to provide a valuable contribution to the project economics. It will also incorporate the updated mineral resource data being prepared by Stantec.
As announced in June 2022, work by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (“ANSTO”) validated Sulphate of Potash as a viable and important by-product at Falchani. ANSTO is now focused on adding Sulphate of Potash and Cesium circuits to the overall flow sheet, while maintaining / increasing the impressive lithium extraction rates and battery grade purity. It is anticipated that this work will be finalized in the near term.
Finally, the PEA will also be updated to reflect the material increase in lithium carbonate pricing since the original report published in early 2020, which used a $12,000 per tonne LCE price. Recent studies on other lithium projects globally have used up to US$24,000 per tonne LCE reflecting material price rises in the commodity over the last 2 years and anticipated long-term pricing. Higher pricing is even more applicable to Falchani given the potential to precipitate battery grade lithium carbonate through its flow sheet.
Simon Clarke, CEO of American Lithium stated, “We are very pleased to accelerate PFS work at Falchani through the appointment of DRA Global to drive completion of what we believe will be a very robust update to the existing PEA and to fast-track completion of the PFS process. Falchani is a unique, large-scale lithium deposit on which a lot of exploration and development work has already been done. We have been able to build on this through ongoing work at ANSTO and the launch of the EIA in August of last year. At the same time, we are delighted to be able to restart drilling at the Project, and the fact that the deposit is open in several directions gives us confidence in our ability to materially expand the mineral resources at Falchani. The existence of other key targets in the area surrounding Falchani with similar surface expressions, continues to fuel our belief that there are additional deposits on our concessions.”
Qualified Person
Mr. Ted O’Connor, P.Geo., Executive Vice President of American Lithium, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.