Anson Resources Ltd (ASX:ASN) (FRA:9MY) has a capital raising announcement pending and has been granted a trading halt by the ASX.
The halt will remain in place until the start of normal trading on Friday, April 3, 2020, or when the announcement is released to the market, whichever occurs earliest.
Shares in the company that is focused on lithium in the US last traded at 1.7 cents.
Test work on core and cuttings
Anson is undertaking test work on recently found historical diamond core and cuttings which may assist in upgrading the existing lithium resource for the Paradox Brine Project to indicated and measured categories.
The company discovered this material which had been retained by the US Federal Government agencies - United States Geological Society (USGS) and the Utah Geological Survey (UGS).
These samples are from previous oil and gas exploration programs conducted in the Paradox project area which intersected Clastic Zone 31, the initial zone Anson is targeting for the extraction of bromine and lithium.
Significantly, the diamond core and cuttings show fracturing and ‘vuggs’ throughout the entire Clastic Zone 31 interval demonstrating high porosity for the storage of brine and confirming the geophysical logs and porosity values used in the maiden JORC resource announcement in June 2019.
Resource upgrade planned
The discovery of the diamond core and cuttings may provide a cost-saving for Anson to upgrade its JORC resource at Paradox to indicated and measured categories without the requirement for further drilling and flow testing.
It is expected that the resource contained in the areas around the sampled historic wells will be upgraded to indicated and measured categories in the near-term.
Battery-grade product
Anson also recently produced battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate using brine from the Paradox project in the state of Utah.
The lithium hydroxide monohydrate is in crystal form with a composite sample grade of 56.2% LiOH.
Data from this test work will be used to design a commercial-scale plant, which will be capable of producing battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate and lithium carbonate from lithium hydroxide solution.
The sample product from this work has been sent to potential off-take partners and end-users for their consideration.