In a press release, Portofino said the 2,932-hectare project encompasses a full salar and is located approximately 30 kilometres south of the company’s 85%-owned Project II, where surface water and auger brine samples averaged 274 mg/l of lithium. The property is also 20 kilometres south-east of Neo Lithium’s 3Q project.

To be able to acquire a 100% interest in Yergo, the Vancouver-based miner has agreed to make escalating annual payments to the vendor over a 48-month period totaling $370,000.

“We are very pleased to have been able to renegotiate a (previously announced) agreement that decreases our acquisition costs and enables us access to a historically unexplored lithium brine salar within the lithium producing province of Catamarca,” David Tafel, Portofino’s CEO, said in the media brief. “The Yergo location enhances our project portfolio and we intend to commence a surface sampling program during the current Argentine summer period.”