Lara Exploration to commence Ki Phosphate project in Chile

Lara Exploration announced that its venture partner, Kiwanda Group LLC, has started a trenching and sampling program at the Ki Phosphate Rock Project that contains more than 21,000 hectares of exploration at Bahia Inglesa in Northern Chile.

Wholly owned by the Phosphate Alliance between Kiwanda and Lara, Ki Project covers extensions of the phosphate-bearing basins being mined by Bifox, where the Phosphate Alliance also has a purchase option.

The program will be based on data from exploration work by the Chilean government in the 1980s, along with remote sensing and more recent fieldwork undertaken by the Phosphate Alliance. Lara Exploration will target phosphate-bearing sediments in different parts of the Ki licenses by excavating and systematically sampling pits and trenches. MEC Mining Party Ltd., a global mining consultancy, has been retained to conduct an initial engineering survey of the completed pits.

A Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment has been completed on 6,200 hectares of the Ki licenses and environmental permits have been secured from the local authority, Servicio de Evaluacion Ambiental, to execute up to 39 exploration drill holes.