The Argosy Minerals Limited (ASX: AGY) share price plunged today. This comes on a day the lithium mining company announced a positive update on its wholly-owned Tonopah Lithium Project.
At market close, Argosy shares were down 8.7% to 10.5 cents apiece.
What did Argosy announce?
In its update, Argosy advised magnetotelluric resistivity surveying works have begun at the Tonopah Lithium Project in the US state of Nevada.
Following the earlier review of geophysical gravity data, Argosy identified lithium brine trap targets that could contain concentrated lithium brine. As such, the company has progressed to the next stage of its exploration program works.
A Nevada-based geophysical contractor will carry out a magnetotelluric (MT) resistivity survey along 3 profile lines covering around 20 lineal kilometres.
Upon completion of the MT survey work and data acquisition, the findings will be sent for processing and analysis. It's expected the interpreted information will provide the company with a better understanding of geological structures in the survey area.
This includes identifying the geologic basement and outlining low resistivity anomalies, potentially caused by lithium brine.
From there, Argosy is able to look at a possible drilling campaign to test the area.
Argosy managing director Jerko Zuvela commented:
The significant push for lithium supply in the USA is fast becoming critical and is paramount in their aim to promote the highly strategic battery minerals industries. The Tonopah Lithium Project will place Argosy in prime position to take advantage of our technological expertise (and successfully producing battery quality lithium carbonate) in an established tier 1 mining region.
We look forward to progressing and realising the potential from our Tonopah Lithium Project and the benefits of being located in the US during this next stage of exponential growth in this industry.
Argosy share price summary
In the last 12 months, the Argosy share price has gained around 110%, with year-to-date up almost 40%. The company's shares rose strongly at the start of the calendar year before profit-taking took hold. More recently, Argosy shares have been moving sideways since the start of March.
On valuation grounds, Argosy has a market capitalisation of roughly $137 million, with 1.25 billion shares on issue.
