Key Highlights

  • Well 8 pump test ran for 72 hours at 2,043 litres per hour, extracting 146,800 litres of brine and returning 232mg/L lithium at 250 metres depth.
  • Existing JORC Mineral Resource stands at 551,400 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at 294mg/L, with most in the Inferred category.
  • Cash was A$9.31 million at 30 June 2026 after placements totalling A$14.2 million, with the Going Concern basis supported by forecasts to September 2027.
  • Drilling at Well 9 has begun and four additional cores are being processed to support a forthcoming resource estimate update.

Patagonia Lithium (ASX:PL3) is leaning on a pump test because it gives hard flow data to set beside its brine grades ahead of a promised resource update. The 72-hour test on Well 8 at the Cilon concession was announced on 2 October 2026.

A brine explorer in Jujuy

Patagonia Lithium Ltd is an ASX-listed Mining explorer, quoted since 31 March 2023 and classified by the ASX in the Materials sector. Its main asset is the Formentera and Cilon project at Salar de Jama in Jujuy Province, Argentina, about 19,500 hectares.

It also holds the roughly 580-hectare Tomas III project at the Incahuasi Salar in Salta Province. In Brazil it controls exploration concession packages that its September 2026 report says are prospective for niobium, rare earth elements, antimony and spodumene.

What the Well 8 pump test showed

Well 8, designated JAM 26-08, was drilled vertically with a target depth of 600 metres. The pump test ran continuously for 72 hours at about 2,043 litres an hour, extracting 146,800 litres in total, followed by a 24-hour recovery test.

The water level fell from a static 3.64 metres to roughly 52 metres during pumping, then returned to 3.64 metres within 24 hours. Lithium reached 232 milligrams a litre at 250 metres in the main aquifer, a well-sorted sandy interval between 226 and 324 metres.

Earlier work reported higher single readings, up to 1,122 parts per million in June 2023 Formentera samples, so this is a test of flow rather than a record grade.

Porosity and the resource question

A 23 September 2026 update reported total porosity of 11.5 per cent in Zone 5 of Well 8, against 15.5 per cent in Zone 6 of the neighbouring Well 7. Free fluid made up 60 per cent of pore space in Well 8, compared with 21 per cent in Well 7.

A core sample at 220.6 metres returned specific Yield of 11.97 per cent. The company interprets its packer tests as pointing to transmissivity control rather than storage control, meaning how readily brine moves matters more than how much the rock holds.

The existing Mineral Resource, estimated on 14 July 2025, totals 551,400 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at 294 milligrams a litre. Only 14,800 tonnes sit in the Indicated category, with 536,600 tonnes Inferred, so most of the estimate still carries lower geological confidence.

Funding and spending

In its half-year report to 30 June 2026, dated 9 September 2026, the company reported a loss after tax of A$2.19 million, including a A$1.41 million share-based payment expense. Cash stood at A$9.31 million, up from A$1.50 million at 31 December 2025.

Placements of A$2.795 million in February and A$3.4 million in June, both at A$0.10 a share, supported that balance. Directors also cited an A$8 million issue on 28 August 2026, of which A$5 million had been received before period end, in concluding that the going concern basis was appropriate, with forecasts extending to 30 September 2027.

Exploration and evaluation Assets were carried at A$12.15 million at 30 June 2026, after A$1.94 million of additions.

Risks and next milestones

A single-well pump test does not prove a commercial brine operation. The company still needs an updated resource estimate, a scoping report and, eventually, approvals, funding and processing technology.

Four additional cores are being processed by consultant DBS&A to correlate with porosity data that had not been received by 2 October. Drilling at Well 9 began on 15 September 2026, and a successful packer test at 150 metres has been reported.

As an exploration company without operating revenue, Patagonia Lithium depends on Equity markets for funding, so further share issues and dilution are a continuing possibility. Lithium prices, Argentine policy and the forthcoming resource update will shape how the results are judged.