Mining firm to explore geothermal lithium in Thailand

Geothermal hot spring at in Mueang Mae Hong Son, Thailand - not related to story (source: flickr/ Geoff_B, creative commons)

Alexander Richter 1 Sep 2021

Reported on stock gains by Australia stockmarket listed Pan Asia Metals, details emerge about ambitions of the company to explore geothermal lithium, as well as hard rock lithium and tin.

Among five special prospecting license applications, the company expects two of those to contain geothermal fields, which are seen as highly prospective for geothermal style lithium.

The geothermal field targeted is in Kata Thong in the south of Thailand near an existing lithium project and a hydropower station, north of Phuket.

“The geothermal aspects of the Kata Thong applications (for the company) are particularly interesting, the geothermal field located in the KT West block abuts the northern end of the lithium enriched Kata Khwam granite, with lithium grades in rock chips up to 2,700 ppm Li2O, which is supported by PAM’s nearby stream sediment sampling reporting assays up to 1,464 ppm Li2O. The potential for a geothermal style lithium project is strong, with the underlying geothermal system similar to that of Cornish Lithium (in Cornwall) except that at Kata Thong the granite is exposed at surface with nearby geothermal discharges of up to 78 degrees Celsius at surface and a hotter geothermal system modelled to depths down to 2km, so Paul Lock, Pan Asia Metals’ Managing Director.

The company is seeking to work with Thai universities with local expertise in geothermal systems “and will engage internationally reputable geothermal expertise to assist with the design and execution of exploration programs to assess the geothermal lithium and power generation potential.”

Thailand has one operating geothermal plant at Fang, but this is in the very North of the country near the border to Myanmar.

Source: Proactive Investors, company release (pdf)