PRAIRIE LITHIUM CORPORATION ("Prairie Lithium" or the "Company") has converted two crown mineral exploration permits with a combined area of 6,795 acres, into 21-year mineral leases. To the Company's knowledge, the mineral leases SML001 and 002 are the first crown mineral leases issued for lithium by the province. This is important because leases are required before companies are allowed to produce a resource at commercial scale production rates. This achievement illustrates the progress Prairie Lithium has been making towards readying its resource for deployment of direct lithium extraction technology (DLE) on its lithium-rich brine resource in Saskatchewan.
Conversion to a lease is only possible when a Company has met the minimum work requirement expenditure associated with an exploration permit. Prairie Lithium's conversion of mineral permits to 21-year mineral leases is a direct result of the exploration work undertaken in 2021 to better understand the distribution of lithium in the Duperow Aquifer in Southeast Saskatchewan.
The exploration program included drilling a new well (14-33-002-12 W2M) and re-completing a well at (01-02-001-12 W2M). Representative fluid samples were collected from eight separate zones in the well at 14-33 and three separate zones in the well at 01-02. In addition to collecting fluid samples, the 14-33 well was flow-tested for overall productivity because long-term sustainable production of brine will be necessary for project viability.
The permit to lease conversion allows Prairie Lithium the opportunity to advance their research and development at a meaningful scale in the field at the appropriate time. Prairie Lithium intends to scale-up and deploy DLE technologies that will maximize the long-term value of its resource. In parallel to its own DLE technology development, the Company is also actively assessing external DLE technologies to ensure that it is utilizing the most cost effective DLE process for long-term production of its resource. The Company acknowledges that DLE technologies are not yet ready to be commercially deployed. The permit to lease conversion will allow Prairie Lithium the opportunity to test DLE technologies on its resource in real world conditions.
Additionally, Prairie Lithium continues to advance their exploration program in 2022, securing Panther Drilling and Independent Well Services Ltd. to perform re-entry work on one of the newly acquired wellbores mentioned in the Company's previous press release on Sept. 21, 2022. This well is being completed to measure lithium concentrations across Prairie Lithium's main target intervals within the Duperow Formation and to understand the productivity across these intervals to ensure a sufficient volume of lithium-rich brine can be produced for long term development. The workover and flow testing are expected to be completed by Dec. 1, 2022.
Source: https://www.prairielithium.ca/