International Lithium Corp. announced that together with strategic partner Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd., the 2016 exploration and development work on the Mariana joint venture project has begun.

As previously announced on December 10, 2015 the companies have allocated a budget of approximately $3,190,000 dedicated to the Mariana Lithium project in Argentina. The first phase of this budget includes conducting bench scale evaporation tests at the Universidad Tcnica de Oruro (UTO) in Bolivia. The company has contracted Door To Design Inc. to oversee the test work conducted at UTO.

The goal of the tests is to study the evaporation path of lithium-potassium-boron brine from Salar de Llullaillaco where the Mariana joint venture owns 100% of the mineral rights. Door to Design staff have significant previous experience with similar projects in Argentina and Chile. Understanding the natural evaporation path and how to effectively control it is paramount in the development of a process to selectively precipitate key potassium and boron ore minerals and remove impurities, leaving a by-product of lithium concentrate brine that can be further processed to produce other lithium products.