Wealth Minerals Ltd. (the “Company” or “Wealth”) – (TSXV: WML; OTCQB: WMLLF; SSE: WMLCL; FSE: EJZN) announces it has executed a non-binding Letter of Intent (the “LOI”) to enter into an option agreement giving it the right to acquire a 100% royalty-free interest in a portfolio of exploration concessi on called the Pabellón Lithium Project (“Pabellón”). Pabellón is included on the Chilean Ministry of Mining’s short list for locations that have the necessary favorable geological characteristics and sound environmental conditions for the awarding of a Special Lithium Operation Contract (please see press release of September 30, 2024).
The Pabellón Lithium Project consists of a portfolio of 26 mineral exploration licenses with an area of 7,600 hectares located in northern Chile, Region II, near the Chile-Bolivia border and approximately 70km due south of the Ollagüe salar. On the surface of the Pabellón license area is the thermal power generation station “Cerro Pabellón” (the “Power Plant”), majority-owned and operated by ENEL (“ENEL”), a multinational Italian utility company (ticker ENEL.MI, market capitalization as of January 16, 2024 of EUR70bn). The Cerro Pabellón geothermal power plant is the only operational geothermal plant in South America, and harnesses underground sourced fluid from a medium-high enthalpy reservoir using binary technology, extracting thermal energy and feeding it into a secondary turbine circuit, then re-injecting 100% of the fluid back into the reservoir at a lower temperature. The heat is constantly regenerated in the reservoir by natural geothermal processes. The Power Plant started operations in 2017 with 48MW capacity and was updated in 2021 for an additional 33MW capacity to provide power into Chile’s national power grid.
Wealth is considering a plan to install a lithium extraction production unit (“Wealth Unit”) adjacent to the Power Plant, after the thermal power generation equipment but before the re-injection of fluid. The Wealth Unit would recover lithium using Direct Lithium Extraction technology (“DLE”). The Pabellón licenses give Wealth certain exclusive rights to the minerals in the fluid ENEL uses at the Power Plant.
Hendrik van Alphen, Wealth’s CEO, said “The Pabellón Lithium Project is an exciting acquisition for Wealth and represents the team’s foresight to get the most value out of our Kuska Project. By adding an additional potential source of mineral material to Kuska and positioning the Company to have an advantage in securing power for future Kuska development, Wealth has now made Kuska more attractive, and by preliminary management estimates, less risky to execute. Additionally, working to connect Kuska and Pabellón, Wealth is pushing a greener, more environmentally friendly development model for mineral extraction. We look forward to working with all stakeholders, from the Indigenous Quechua Community of Ollagüe, ENEL, our strategic investor Sulzer (see press release of May 10, 2024), Chilean officials and others to bring forth Kuska’s full potential.”
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