Southern Lithium Provides Update on Phase One Exploration Program at Cruz Property, Salta Province, Argentina

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Southern Lithium Corp.  (SNL.V) (SL5.F)  ("Southern" or "the Company") is pleased to announce it has completed the first hole of the Phase One exploration program and has begun drilling the second hole at its Cruz Property in the Pocitos Salar Basin in Salta Province, Argentina. Additionally, the Company wishes to announce that it has increased the Non-Brokered Private Placement (the “Private Placement”), previously announced on July 26, 2017, from CDN$1.2 Million to $1.6 Million.

The first hole (CREX 1701) of the current program was drilled to a depth of 476 metres at the northern end of the Company's claim in the Pocitos Salar Basin. The purpose of this core hole was to obtain depth-specific samples of the brine and its host material to collect geochemical, lithologic and porosity data.

The Company has mobilized the drill to the 2^nd drill pad that is about 3.5 km to the south of the location of hole CREX 1701. A geophysics program will be conducted to confirm continuity between holes and the hydrogeology. Southern Lithium intends to be very aggressive in its exploration approach on the Cruz Property.

The program is being managed in Argentina through Southern’s joint venture partner Millennial Lithium Corp. Millennial has engaged HIDROTEC S.R.L., a Salta-based drilling company with extensive experience in drilling and testing salar-hosted lithium brines. Millennial has engaged Mike Rosko of Montgomery and Associates, Inc. a US-based hydrogeological consultancy to provide program guidance and act as the Company's qualified person for reporting results.

Mr. Clive Massey, CEO of Southern Lithium Corp. stated: "Management is very pleased with the progress of our phase one exploration program at the Cruz property, and thrilled to begin activity in the highly prospective Argentinian portion of the Lithium Triangle, which we believe will continue to yield impressive discoveries in the years to come.  

Private Placement

The company will issue 6,400,000 units (each “Unit”) at a purchase price $0.25 per Unit, for total gross proceeds of up to $1,600,000. Each Unit will consist of (1) common share (“Common Share”) of the Company and one (1) non-transferable share purchase warrant (“Warrant”).

Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one (1) Common Share at an exercise price of $0.35 for a period of 18 months from the closing date of the Private Placement. In the event that the Company’s common shares trade at a closing price greater than $0.50 per share for a period of 10 consecutive trading days at any time after the closing date, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders thereof and in such case the Warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date hereafter referred to as the (“Forced Conversion Feature”) on which such notice is given by the Company.

The Company may, at its sole discretion, pay a finder’s fee within TSX Venture Exchange policy guidelines in connection with the Private Placement. The Private Placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

About the Cruz Property

The Company has executed a formal option agreement with Proyecto Pastos Grandes S.A. (“PPG SA”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Millennial Lithium Corp. (ML.V) (A3N2.F) (MLNLF), through the option Southern Lithium can earn up to an eighty percent (80%) interest in the PPG SA’s Cruz Property in the Pocitos Salar Basin in Salta Province, Argentina.

The Cruz Property is located in South America’s Lithium Triangle (northern Chile, northwestern Argentina and southwest Bolivia). The property encompasses 9,027 hectares (22,306 acres) in the Pocitos Salar Basin in Salta Province, Argentina.

The Cruz Property is contiguous to the southern limit of the Salar del Rincón Basin, where ADY Resources Limited is extracting lithium brine, and the northern limit of the Pocitos Salar Basin, where the Cruz property is located. Both properties lie along the structural belt that hosts the important lithium resources of the region, and at the junction of a large north-south fault system and the northwest-southeast megastructure along which lies the Rincon volcano, the possible source of the lithium brine in both salar basins. The 60-kilometre long Pocitos salar basin has previously only been drill tested with a shallow 12-hole program in the 1970s by an Argentinean government agency “Direccion General de Fabricaciones Militares”. To date, this is the only confirmed exploration drilling conducted in the Pocitos basin. The hole that produced the best results is near the southeast edge of the Cruz property boundary, and averaged 417 parts per million lithium. Although these results are considered historical and have not been verified by the Company's QP, the Company considers these results relevant to the future exploration of the Cruz property.