Patagonia Lithium Wraps Drilling and Hands All Data to Resource Upgrade Team
Key Takeaways
- Well 9 finished at 230m and closed the drilling program, with the company admitting results fell below those of other wells.
- A packer test over 90-104m produced brine flow of 66.3 L/hr at an SG of 1.016 gm/cm3.
- Vizcachera clay with specific yield of 12.9% to 14.13% is, for now, not being treated as basement, a call that could lift the resource but is not final.
- The existing MRE of 551,400t LCE at 294mg/L is being upgraded by Atacama Water Consultants, with no date disclosed.
- Assays from three core samples are due in about 2 weeks, and 2,000L of brine is at the lab for Ekosolve pilot plant testing.
Well 9 completed at 230m, drilling program concluded
Patagonia Lithium (ASX:PL3) has completed Well 9 (JAM26-09) at 230m end of hole, bringing its drilling program to a close. The well was an infill well with no geophysics, and its results came in below those from other wells.
The company stopped at 230m because it was unable to acquire more than one brine assay. It also decided not to continue drilling the infill well location, given the “substantial results achieved elsewhere on the project.” That reads as capital discipline: no more money spent chasing a marginal hole when stronger data already exists.
Key figures from the announcement:
- A successful packer test (a tool that isolates one section of a well so brine can be drawn from it) was conducted at 95m depth, over the 90-104m interval, with brine flow of 66.3 L/hr
- Specific gravity (SG, a measure of brine density) of 1.016 gm/cm3
- 2,000L of brine shipped to a laboratory for Ekosolve pilot plant testing
- Three core samples sent for analysis, with assay results expected in the next 2 weeks
Phillip Thomas, Executive Chairman
“We achieved reasonable brine flow at 95m, which was positive, with an SG of 1.016gm/cm3. While we would have preferred results consistent with other wells, the information sourced from the well is very valuable in modelling the layers and aquifers across the salar. This completes our drilling program and all available data has been passed to Atacama Water Consultants to complete the Mineral Resource Estimate upgrade.”
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What the Well 9 packer test and drilling revealed
Packer test results
The field results from the successful packer test at 90-104m are set out below.
| Test | SG | EC | pH | TDS ppt | Temp | Depth M | Chamber M | Flow rate L/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1.016 | 28.59 | 10.72 | 14.47 | 15.89 | 90-104 | 14 | 66.3 |
EC is electrical conductivity in microsiemens per centimetre, TDS is total dissolved solids in parts per thousand, and temperature is in Celsius. Chamber is the length of the chamber where brine was extracted.
Geology encountered
Drilling intercepted 50m of clays with gypsum veins, testing the extent of the large aquifer intercepted by Well 2 (JAM 24-02). The company says these clays represent a basement layer sitting above gravels, which have very low porosity.
The core from 86.8-96.3m had the following visual mineral composition:
- Metaquartzite/lithic fragments: 80%
- Quartz: 18%
- Montmorillonite/smectite: 2%
The company cautions that visual estimates of mineral abundance should never be considered a proxy or substitute for laboratory analyses. Assay results for the visual estimate are expected in the next 2 weeks.
Why does the basement clay question matter for the resource?
Two terms drive this issue. Porosity is how much brine a rock can hold, while specific yield (Sy) is how much of that brine can actually drain out.
Rock with very low porosity is treated as “basement” and excluded from a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE). Rock that holds and releases brine can count towards the brine-bearing volume, which is why the label matters to the size of the resource.
The announcement says Vizcachera basement clay values are higher than expected. Two INLAB samples from Well 5 show Sy of 12.9% and 13.5%, and one DBS&A laboratory sample from Well 6 reaches 14.13%.
For now, Atacama Water Consultants have decided not to treat this unit as a basement, since brine samples (packer tests) were recovered from Wells 5 and 6 and the porosity values are high. Further correlation work is being conducted, so this is not a final position.
For context, the existing MRE, released on 14 July 2025, is 551,400t LCE @ 294mg/L. That comprises 14,800t LCE @ 393mg/L Indicated and 536,600t LCE @ 292mg/L Inferred. An upgrade is being computed.
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Next steps: MRE upgrade and scoping report
The announcement points to the following:
- Well 9 assay results expected in the next 2 weeks
- An MRE update is being computed by Atacama Water Consultants
- A scoping report will follow
- Ekosolve pilot plant testing of the 2,000L brine sample
No date was disclosed for the MRE upgrade or the scoping report. What you can take from this is that the completed drilling program now feeds directly into the resource update, and how the basement clay is treated could shape the result.
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