South Korea’s Posco and Canada’s Lithium South Development (TSXV: LIS) — a junior with a $39-million market cap — have signed an agreement for the joint development of the Hombre Muerto lithium project in the Argentine province of Salta.
As part of the deal, the partners will have a split claim on all brine produced at two of the Norma Edith and Viamonte blocks in Catamarca and Salta. This arrangement avoids a lengthy, costly, and uncertain legal undertaking, the companies said, as they both hold claims to the same ground but in different provinces.
Lithium South has been working to expand a 2018 measured and indicated resource for its HMN project (1.6 million tonnes lithium carbonate in 571,000 tonnes averaging 756 mg lithium per litre). It also planned a 2024 feasibility study for HMN, which is comprised of five claim blocks, including Norma Edith/Viamonte.
Posco has been expanding its steelmaking portfolio into new businesses for diversification, giving preference to minerals and metals used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
The partnership between Lithium South and POSCO Argentina SAU, along with the increased resource estimate at the Hombre Muerto North project, marks a new phase in the asset development.
Argentina is part of the so-called “lithium triangle,” which also includes neighbours Chile and Bolivia, home to one of the world’s largest lithium reserves.
Official figures indicate the country, which has attracted to its growing lithium sector, expects exports of the battery metal to reach US$5.6 billion by 2025.
The figure is based on the production of 200,000 annual tonnes of the battery metal thanks to the development of six new projects in addition to the output of two existing lithium mines.
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