Australia's Pursuit Brings in Korean Investor to Develop Salta Lithium Project in Argentina

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On November 9, Australian mining company Pursuit Minerals signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with Korean battery materials company EcoPro Innovation to establish a US$40 million investment and financing cooperation arrangement for the Rio Grande Sur lithium project in Salta Province, Argentina, and to promote long-term offtake of Phase 1 lithium products. The proposed funding includes US$20 million in project equity investment and up to US$20 million in prepayment financing. EcoPro also plans to offtake approximately 5,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent production from Phase 1 of the project.

Under the framework agreement, EcoPro Innovation intends to invest US$20 million in the subsidiary through which Pursuit holds the Rio Grande Sur project in Argentina, acquiring a 20% equity interest in the project company. Upon completion of the transaction, Pursuit is expected to retain an 80% equity interest and operational control of the project. The other portion of up to US$20 million will be provided as product offtake prepayments, disbursed in stages according to project development milestones and subsequently repaid through the delivery of lithium products to EcoPro.

EcoPro intends to acquire long-term offtake rights for all lithium products from Phase 1 of Rio Grande Sur, corresponding to a designed capacity of approximately 5,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent. The agreement intends to use the Fastmarkets lithium carbonate benchmark price as the pricing reference on a CIF Asia basis, with Pursuit retaining a 10% supply volume adjustment option. For additional production from future expansion phases of the project, EcoPro will also receive a 60-day exclusive offtake negotiation right.

The Phase 1 construction funding requirement is US$156.63 million. According to the pre-feasibility study data published by Pursuit, this includes construction costs of US$130.12 million, contingency of US$12.41 million, interest during construction of US$13.03 million, and financing fees of US$1.07 million. In addition to the US$40 million proposed by the Korean company, Pursuit also plans to raise up to US$120 million in senior secured project loans from third-party financial institutions to cover the Phase 1 development funding requirement. This debt financing remains subject to securing loan arrangements and obtaining approval from financial institutions.

Rio Grande Sur is located in Salta Province, Argentina, and is a salar brine lithium development project in the Lithium Triangle region of South America. According to a mineral resource estimate compliant with the Australian JORC Code, the project has a resource of approximately 1.264 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at an average lithium concentration of 424 mg/L, including 705,000 tonnes in the Indicated category and 559,000 tonnes in the Inferred category. A supplementary report to the pre-feasibility study published on November 6, 2026, further increased the project's staged planned capacity to 17,500 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent and updated the probable reserves to approximately 438,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.

The project development remains at the commercial construction preparation stage. Pursuit is currently advancing the definitive feasibility study and supporting technical work, while arranging the relocation of the pilot plant and construction of on-site pilot facilities, conducting process validation, product quality certification, detailed engineering design, and hydrogeological investigations, and progressing water supply wellfield planning and environmental permit applications. The project still needs to complete technical, legal, financial, and commercial due diligence and secure construction financing and related approvals before entering the final investment decision and engineering construction stage.