Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

Argentina Lithium & Energy (TSX-V: LIT)(OTC: PNXLF) CEO Niko Cacos on Hitting Lithium on Large Step Outs in Argentina

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the President and CEO of Argentina Lithium & Energy. Mr. Niko Cacos. Nico, great to have you back on. How are you today?

Niko Cacos: I'm doing very well. A real pleasure to be back on your show, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Listen, it's great to have you back reporting some really, really good news. You just extended the lithium brine zone at the Rincon West Project. You're in the right address in Argentina. You're finding the right commodity. I know it's an element. I'm going to call it a commodity in Lithium. And look, it looks like you really are onto something substantial here. I'll let you provide the context, but congratulations. The latest results are nothing short of excellent.

Niko Cacos: Thank you. No, we're very excited that we're very pleased with the results that we're getting. Our property, our lead property here, that Rincon West Project is situated in the Rincon Salar, our big neighbor there being Rio Tinto, which has got a very large resource, which I understand they're pushing forward to going into production. And our other pier is on the opposite side of this Salt Lake in Rincon called Argosy Minerals. And they too have a large resource and are moving towards production. So we've just finished compiling our property portfolio here only a few months ago, but just 10 months ago we began drilling with the nine hole drill program, and yesterday we announced holes five and six. And I got to say, we had the best hole yet, and every single one of our holes has been in lithium. And now we seem to be extending the extent of the lithium aquifers towards the west. So we're adding some scale here. So this is very exciting.

Gerardo Del Real: I have to say, I'm not just impressed by the results. I'm impressed by where you're hitting these intersections, right? You're stepping out almost two kilometers in one in the case of hole five. Can you speak to that a bit? Because the scale here is adding up very, very quickly.

Niko Cacos: Yes. I mean, what's really driving this is we embarked, before we began drilling, we did a highly specialized geophysical survey of the area. Trans electric magnetics or TEM. And what this does is it's very, very good at identifying underground growing aquifers. So by doing that, we were able to target our drill, to position our drill holes and target these aquifers and it’s yielding the great results that we're getting so far

Gerardo Del Real: What comes next? That's the question in the market, right? Everybody obviously is happy with the results. You got a good market reaction. Lithium is on fire. I keep saying it has emerged as a bastion of stability in South America. What comes next, Nico?

Niko Cacos: We have a lot. A very, very aggressive program coming up next. This is on the back of having finance raised a large financing just in the last quarter. So we're fully funded. We got over $10 million in the treasury, fully funded for the end of the year to execute on our programs. We have a nine hole program for this Rincon project. We just completed hole seven. So we have a couple more holes, which should wrap up by the end of March. And then as permitting kicks in for some of the additional properties in the Rincon area, we think that be middle of March, beginning of April. We're going to start with the geophysics and some more drilling. We see drilling on the Rincon project throughout the whole of 2023. And as we come to summer, June, July of this year, we expect to be announcing our very first maiden resource. So this is going to be a very, very exciting year for Argentina Lithium.

Gerardo Del Real: I have to believe that your phone has been ringing, given the scale of the project, the mineralization that you're hitting. Tell me a bit about that. You got to be having conversations, I'm sure, with potential suitors.

Niko Cacos: Oh, there's lots of companies that are very, very interested trying to come up with, to acquire property within the lithium triangle in Argentina that has, the location that we have is almost impossible now. The competition is absolutely fierce. It's our 30 year expertise in that country through our association with the Grosso Group that's allowed us to position ourselves like this. And while we're happy to show our projects to all kinds of suitors at this point, I think we're funded and we're going to continue with our expression program because I think there's a lot of value here that can be added. And this value is deserved by our current shareholders.

Gerardo Del Real: Nico, congrats. Keep at it. Look forward to having you back on soon. Thank you.

Niko Cacos: Thank you.

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