Lithium Chile confirms buyer interest in its assets following trade halt

In light of the recent trading activity in its share capital, Lithium Chile (TSXV: LITH; OTC: LTMCF) has released a statement confirming the expression of interest from an arm’s-length third party for the acquisition of certain South American assets held by the company.

Earlier this week, shares of Calgary-based Lithium Chile surged to a new 52-week high of $1.13 on the TSX Venture Exchange, along with sky-high trading volumes, which led to a temporary suspension in the stock on Wednesday.

Trading resumed on Thursday, with investors taking profits and sending the stock down by more than 16% to 92¢ by late afternoon in Toronto. This would give the company a market capitalization of $187.9 million.

The South America-focused lithium miner is advancing a property portfolio consisting of about 1,120 sq. km in Chile and 208 sq. km in Argentina. It has three active projects.

The most advanced asset is the Salar de Arizaro project in Argentina, containing an NI 43-101 resource of 1.34 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in the indicated category plus 1.25 million tonnes LCE inferred. An updated resource at the project last December raised the LCE tonnage by 81%. 

A Phase 2 development program on Salar de Arizaro is underway.

The remaining two projects are still in the exploration phase. Near-surface sampling from the Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Laguna Blanca projects have previously returned up to 1,410 mg/l lithium.

Lithium Chile also owns five properties totalling more than 210 sq. km that are prospective for gold, silver and copper. Exploration efforts are continuing on the Carmona property, which lies in the heart of the Chilean mega porphyry gold-silver-copper belt.

Regarding the third-party interest in these assets, the company stressed that it has not signed any binding documents in relation to any potential acquisition.

“Lithium Chile intends to retain advisors to evaluate the appropriateness of entering into discussions pertaining to any potential acquisition,” it stated in a media release.