Pursuit Minerals has expanded its Argentine exploration push after recording an 809mg/L lithium brine result at depth, securing new environmental approvals and refining gold-silver targets. But with A$0.76 million in cash and just 0.3 quarters of reported funding, the next phase depends on additional capital and further assay results.
- 809mg/L lithium result from 399.2 metres at Mito
- DDH-4 drilling extends exploration into Demasía
- Environmental approvals advance pilot and commercial pathways
- Sascha Marcelina mapping identifies priority gold-silver targets
- A$0.76 million cash and 0.3 quarters of reported funding
High-grade lithium result meets a thin cash balance
Pursuit Minerals Limited (ASX:PUR) has produced its strongest lithium result at Rio Grande Sur, but the September quarter report places that exploration progress alongside a more immediate financial constraint. A preliminary sample from 399.2 to 404.0 metres at the Mito tenement returned 809mg/L lithium, while the company reported only A$0.76 million in cash at 30 September and an estimated 0.3 quarters of funding under its current expenditure rate.
The deep result was 171% higher than a shallower interval of 298.4mg/L from 156.2 to 161.0 metres. Pursuit says the result is the highest lithium grade it has recorded at Rio Grande Sur and may support future resource growth, but additional laboratory results from DDH-3, including samples below the 400-metre interval, were still pending at quarter-end. More than 20 positive packer tests were recorded through the hole to depths exceeding 550 metres.
The result builds on the 809mg/L Mito lithium result, which had already identified the deep sample as Pursuit’s strongest assay at Rio Grande Sur. The company’s existing resource stands at 1.264 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at an average grade of 424mg/L, meaning any resource expansion remains dependent on the interpretation of the broader drilling and hydrogeological dataset rather than this isolated result.
Demasía drilling tests the resource’s next boundary
After completing the roughly 560-metre DDH-3 hole at Mito, Pursuit commenced DDH-4 on the recently acquired Demasía tenement. The hole is designed to reach approximately 500 metres and test whether brine-bearing horizons continue beyond areas included in the current resource. Early packer testing recovered formation brines at approximately 26 metres and 58 metres, although lithium concentrations and wider chemistry were not yet available.
That work extends the Demasía resource expansion drilling, which previously reported shallow brine recovery while assays remained outstanding. The company intends to incorporate results from both holes into its geological and hydrogeological models, with the stated aim of assessing grade, continuity and potential resource growth.
Pilot approvals advance while commercial permitting remains open
Pursuit also secured Salta provincial environmental approvals to relocate its lithium carbonate pilot plant from Salta Capital to the Rio Grande Sur project. The approval covers eight evaporation ponds, each approximately 100 metres by 100 metres, an equipment storage facility and the movement and storage of 76 pilot-plant items. The company says the site-based infrastructure is intended to support processing optimisation using Rio Grande Sur brine.
The approval is not the same as permission to build the proposed commercial operation. Pursuit has submitted an environmental application for the evaporation ponds associated with its planned 5,000-tonne-per-year lithium carbonate project, while the Stage 2 pre-feasibility study addendums continue to assess larger lithium carbonate and lithium chloride pathways. Those studies are yet to establish a final expanded development case, capital requirement or financing structure.
Gold-silver targets move towards maiden drilling
At the Sascha Marcelina Gold Project in Santa Cruz, geological mapping and geophysical interpretation identified five priority exploration centres, with Sascha Northwest, Marcelina and Estancia elevated as key targets. The company describes a 5.5-kilometre mineralised corridor at Sascha Main and an approximately 11-square-kilometre silica cap at Marcelina, where historical drilling and geophysical anomalies point to deeper targets that remain largely untested.
Pursuit plans to finalise a maiden gold drilling program, including contractor arrangements and mobilisation planning. The report also cites historical intersections such as 1.55 metres at 8.92g/t gold at Sascha Main and 0.9 metres at 1.35g/t gold with 363.17g/t silver at Marcelina; these are historical results and do not establish the size or economic potential of a mineral deposit.
Share sales buy time but do not remove the funding question
The cash position is the filing’s sharpest counterpoint to the exploration narrative. Appendix 5B records A$2.347 million of operating and investing outflows for the quarter, with no equity funding received, leaving A$0.761 million at quarter-end. Pursuit subsequently sold 12.675 million Kendrick Resources shares between 23 September and 28 October for net proceeds of approximately A$1.32 million, while retaining 25.254 million Kendrick shares.
Management says it intends to raise further capital as required and expects to manage discretionary spending while advancing its objectives. The stated December-quarter priorities are the Stage 2 PFS addendums, integration of DDH-3 and DDH-4 results, commercial offtake and financing discussions, and preparation for maiden gold drilling. The practical test is whether those catalysts arrive before the company needs to fund another round of exploration and development work.
Bottom Line?
The exploration pipeline has strengthened, but pending assays, commercial approvals and a new capital raise now sit between the project ambitions and their funding.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the remaining DDH-3 and DDH-4 assays support a material increase to the 1.264Mt LCE resource?
- What will the Stage 2 PFS addendums show for capital intensity and economics across the carbonate and chloride pathways?
- Can Pursuit secure funding or offtake support on terms that preserve shareholder value before its reported cash runway expires?