About the Project

Argentina Lithium has acquired a 100% interest in over 25,000 hectares of the Incahuasi Salar and basin in Catamarca province. The Company believes Incahuasi is underexplored, and in particular supports conditions for quality lithium brines at depth.

Location & Infrastructure

The Incahuasi salar is located in the province of Catamarca in the high plateau (Puna) region of northwestern Argentina, at an altitude of approximately 3300 metres above sea level. The salar is located in a hyper-arid region, receiving on average less than 30 millimetres of rain per year, a necessary condition for the creation of evaporative brines.

Access to the Salar is through a gravel road from the town of Antofagasta de la Sierra, approximately 34 kilometres to the northeast.

Geological Setting

The Incahuasi Salar is located in a North-South tectonic basin formed by extensional stress in the last 2 million years. The salar is limited to the west by the Calalaste Range which is formed by the Cortaderas Chicas Sedimentary-Volcanic Complex. This unit of Ordovician age consists of folded sedimentary, volcaniclastic and acid volcanic rocks.

Fossiliferous turbidites from middle to upper Ordovician outcrop to the north and the east of the salar. These rocks form the Falda Cienaga Formation and the upper sedimentary portion of the Cortaderas Chicas Complex. The turbidite unit is overlain unconformably by Permian red beds of the Patquia de la Cuesta Formation. Fluvial sandstones, siltstones and conglomerates of Eocene age, called the Geste Formation, cover this unit.

The tectonic basin of the Salar continues to the south but it was filled by distal pyroclastic flows of the Cerro Blanco Complex of Pleistocene age. To the north, the basin is covered by recent fluvial and eolic sediments form the salars and lowlands.

The Incahuasi Salar stretches 17 kilometres north-south and extents 2.5 km east to west, but it is divided in a north and in a south portion. The North portion is a flat zone, partially covered with superficial water, at an altitude of 3270 m. There are crusts of NaCl and ulexite.

The South portion is a terrigenous salar, with sand and clays and NaCl and Na sulphates. The topography of this portion is not flat as the northern one. It starts at 3270 m and reaches 3276 m at the south end.

At both the north and south the basin continues but is covered with fine sediments and pyroclastics flows of the Cerro Blanco Complex, respectively. These covered areas may also have brines and aquifers at depth.

Exploration Program

Argentina Lithium launched its first exploration program at the Incahuasi project in 2017 and completed initial geophysical, surface sampling and drilling programs. 

For details of the latest work program and results please refer to the News Releases and Presentations.