Key Highlights

  • Patagonia Lithium's application for a 1,000-tonne lithium carbonate demonstration plant in Jujuy was gazetted on 9 October 2026.
  • A packer-test assay from well JAM 26-09 returned 28 ppm lithium, and the company said the well is outside the aquifer's lithium concentration area.
  • The update of the Mineral Resource Estimate is delayed by five weeks while 27 cores are re-analysed.

Patagonia Lithium (ASX:PL3) has given a progress update on its Argentine brine projects in which the central development is regulatory: its application to build a 1,000-tonne lithium carbonate demonstration plant in Jujuy Province was gazetted in Provincial Official Gazette No. 121 on 9 October 2026. The company said the next step is detailed analysis by the Jujuy Mining Department, followed by a meeting of the Provincial Mining Environmental Management Unit (UGAMP) that it expects in mid-to-late November or early December 2026. Participants then have 60 days to comment. An environmental monitoring survey was completed on 14 and 15 October 2026.

The update also reported a result from well JAM 26-09. A single packer-test assay, from a well drilled to a final depth of 230 metres and completed on 7 October 2026, returned 28 parts per million lithium. The brine's specific gravity was 1.01 g/cm³, against about 1.18 g/cm³ for 510 ppm brine elsewhere on the project. The company said this places well 9 outside the aquifer's lithium concentration area.

Core samples from the well were shipped to Inlab in Quilmes on 9 October. Sample 2, from 91.10 to 91.30 metres, was unconsolidated fine-to-medium sand with low-to-moderate porosity and a positive packer test, while samples 3 and 6 were negative. The 72-hour pump tests and BMR Gamma tests have not yet been carried out on the well.

Resource update delayed

Patagonia said 27 cores were sent to Geosystems Analysis to resolve unusually high core porosity and two low BMR values, which delays the update of its Mineral Resource Estimate by five weeks. The existing estimate, dated 14 July 2025, is 551,400 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at 294 mg/L, of which 14,800 tonnes at 393 mg/L is Indicated and 536,600 tonnes at 292 mg/L is Inferred. Clay samples have gone to Universidad Nacional del Sur at the request of Atacama Water Consultants, which is completing the estimate. Twelve brine samples have been sent to ALS Laboratories for quality control because SGS was undergoing equipment maintenance.

Process test work

On the technology side, the company reported that 2,000 litres of brine at 510 ppm lithium has been sent to a laboratory and pilot plant in Beijing for scale-up work, with some results to feed a Scoping Report. Shaker tests by Sulzer on well 2 brines gave positive results at a solvent-to-brine ratio of 6:1, down from 10:1 used in 2024; the company said its Ekosolve system captures and regenerates all of the solvent. Two of five expert reports for the Scoping Study have been received.

Incentives and project finance

Patagonia said it has filed its annual response to the national mining Investment registry under Law 24.196, which it says offers compliant companies VAT refunds on exploration, fiscal stability, double deduction of exploration costs, accelerated Depreciation and Tariff benefits on mining imports. Work has also started on an application under Argentina's RIGI regime, which the company says provides 30 years of fiscal stability for investment of US$200 million or more over three years. It cited an Ekosolve estimate of about US$130 million for a 10,000-tonne plant, and said total spending, including ancillary plants and additional wells, is expected to exceed the threshold over three to four years. These are company expectations; no application has yet been approved.

Other projects and uncertainties

Patagonia Lithium (ASX:PL3) is also updating the environmental and social impact report for its Tomás III tenement in Salta Province. Its portfolio includes the 19,500-hectare Formentera and Cilon project at Salar de Jama and 41,746 hectares of Brazilian concessions.

Uncertainties noted include the environmental approval timetable, the outcome of the core-porosity review, and whether the pilot work translates into commercial processing. The next confirmed milestones are the UGAMP meeting expected from mid-November and the revised resource estimate about five weeks after 23 October 2026.