CEO Martin Holland describes LPI as the only company with exposure to a lithium development project in the “home of lithium mining,” where production is dominated by majors Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NY:SQM) and Albemarle (NY:ALB).

LPI announced a 3.7-fold increase in July to Maricunga’s resource, establishing it as one of the world’s highest-grade, pre-production lithium brine projects.

“Since we released our resource increase, our door has literally been knocked down by end-users,” Holland told the Investor Hub from Santiago.

“These include Chinese, Japanese and European groups – all within a two-week period which gives us a lot of confidence about how real the demand for lithium is.”

Maricunga’s near-surface resource, in the region dubbed the world’s lithium triangle, contains 2.15 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at 1160 mg/l and 5.7Mt of potassium chloride at 8,500mg/l.

Notably, the resource’s porosity and permeability are proved positive in testwork, which Holland said was as important in the salars as the high lithium grade itself.

A prefeasibility study is expected before the end of this year, a milestone in the rapid trajectory of Maricunga, which was not part of LPI’s asset portfolio when it listed on the ASX just over 12 months ago.

The project joint venture was agreed in September 2016 and thanks to an aggressive exploration program, no further drilling is required as the project holds a multi-decade mine life in the top 200 metres of the deposit.

LPI has plenty of funds to push the project forward – it ended the June quarter with A$3.6 million cash and more than US$6 million in the joint venture to fast-track Maricunga’s development.

Holland said Maricunga’s pilot plant was operational and expected to produce lithium carbonate within months and he is aiming for financial close in 2018.

“A lot has been achieved in a 10-month period,” he said.

Looking back to pre-listing, Holland said research had shown lithium was in short supply and LPI amassed lithium projects in Western Australia near the Greenbushes mine and Pilgangoora development projects and on the other side of the lithium triangle in Argentina.

“But the more research I did, it became clear the main prize was Maricunga but it needed a lot more work done to it,” Holland said.

“If you like lithium, you want to be in a brine project because you’re going to sit at the bottom of the cost curve, and if you want to be in brine you want to be in a high-grade project and those are located in Chile – and for a mining jurisdiction you’d choose Chile ahead of any other country in Latin America.”

As for whether Holland had thought the project could be this well advanced a year ago, he said the world-class nature of the project and its location had made it possible.

The Maricunga salar is next to highway 31, linking Chile to Argentina, it lies 170km from the mining town of Copiapo, has access to power, water and a port and is on “the right side of the Andes border”, Holland explains.

“We’ve had a lot of fortune with nature here and that’s allowed us to fast-track the project into this position so quickly,” he said.

“Not only did we have brine intervals from 30cm deep all the way down to 200m in some of the best material you could ask for in some of the highest-grade globally in every single hole that we drilled, and the flow rates came out as absolutely phenomenal as well,” he said.

“The project is really speaking to us and we’re putting everything we can into it – capital, time, experts and tier one contractors because we believe this project warrants that.”

LPI appointed top engineering consultant, ASX-listed WorleyParsons in May for the project design and feasibility studies, valuing the company’s Latin American lithium experience.

“The reason we appointed them is obviously because they have a tier 1 brand but also because they were involved in SQM’s expansion plans in same region of Chile as us,” Holland said.

“They’ve got in-country and on-ground experience.”

To further fast-track development, Holland said the company had begun environmental baseline work that he hoped to submit in parallel with the completion of the prefeasibility study.

“The plan is that in the second or third quarter of 2018, we’ll have a definitive feasibility study completed in parallel with our environmental impact assessment approval,” he said.

“That leads us into financial close into 2018.”

LPI has moved to bolster its team with experienced personnel and well-credentialled board members to advance the high calibre project.

“Technically we’ve sourced the majority of the Orocobre team who built the only lithium brine project in the last two decades and they’re working for us,” Holland said.

“We’ve appointed some people from SQM and we have a whole range of experienced engineers working for us.”

LPI has also appointed corporate heavyweights to its board.

Atlas Iron founding director David Hannon was appointed chairman earlier this year and former COO of Goldcorp and Newcrest Mining CEO Russell Barwick was appointed non-executive director.

“These people who are coming onto the board believe in Maricunga like I do,” Holland said.

Hannon has operated a private investment group for more than 15 years and chaired Atlas while the iron ore miner was in the ASX100 index.

Barwick was at the helm of Goldcorp when it grew to become the third largest gold company in the world by market capitalisation.

Holland said Barwick’s involvement had helped open up a range of doors in North America and the experienced mining engineer was going to check in on WorleyParsons’ progress before a site visit.

“Then he’s off to London and I’m off to China – there’s a lot happening,” Holland said.

The much-reported growing demand for lithium, for its use in electric vehicles and energy storage, has been demonstrated to LPI by the flood of interest from potential off-takers in the past few weeks.

“We’re not in a rush to find joint venture or offtake partners but when we do, it will be a tier 1 partner to marry up with this project,” Holland said.

Meanwhile, LPI is earning 50% of Maricunga and has first right of refusal over its Chilean joint venture partner’s 32.3%.

“There is a possibility in time we may go to 83% of the project,” Holland said.

“That being said, our view internally is that being a foreign company investing into Latin America, having strong ties in-country is very important and our Chilean partner is very experienced with the government.”

Looking to the future, LPI has an exploration target of up to 2.5Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent below Maricunga’s resource to a depth of 400m but is content to progress the project without any need for further drilling.

“We’re not sure where the bottom is yet but we’re not going to complete further drilling at this stage because we have a multi-decade minelife in the first 200m,” Holland said.

“Our view to is to take this all the way through and take the material to market, but knowing there is the potential to have another multi-decade minelife in the next 200-400m inside this project would make it one of the largest, highest grade, lowest cost potential lithium producers in the world.

“We now have a clear path with a full development program in play.

“LPI offers investors the only exposure to a lithium development asset in the same region as those two companies where up to 40% of the world’s supply comes from – and we are the next company to build a mine in Chile.”