August 12, 2010 (FinancialWire) (Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=ftrdnwswnd for all of today’s featured news.) — Li3 Energy, Inc. (OTCBB: LIEG) said it has executed a stock purchase agreement with mining private equity funds managed or advised by Pacific Road Capital Management to acquire a Cayman-based company that has a 100% interest in a nitrate-iodine project in northern Chile. The property, known as the Alfredo Project, covers around 6,670 acres, comprising six concessions, and is located southeast of the city of Iquique near the mining community of Pozo Almonte.

According to Li3, Alfredo is situated in the proximity of the caliche mines, nitrate and iodine manufacturing facilities of SQM and ACF Minera.

The company said that an independent drilling, sampling and geophysical evaluation of Alfredo estimated an inferred resource of 63.5 million tons of caliche ore containing four million metric tons of nitrate and 12,000 metric tons of iodine with an average grade of 6.3% nitrate using a 4% cut off grade. In exchange for the Alfredo property and pursuant to the SPA, Li3 has issued an aggregate of 10 million shares of Li3 common stock to the sellers and their designees.

Li3 said that 8.8 million of the shares issued to the sellers that are subject to an 18-month lock up period pursuant to the SPA. In addition, the company is required to make cash payments totaling $5.5 million, if, as and when certain milestones relating to Alfredo's development are reached.

The SPA also grants the sellers options to purchase additional shares of Li3 common stock. First, within 60 days of closing under the SPA, sellers may purchase between $2.5 million and $10 million of units at a price of $25,000 per unit.

Each "unit" consists of 100,000 shares of the company's common stock; and five-year warrants to purchase 100,000 shares of the company's common stock at an exercise price of $0.50 per share.

Upon the company's completion of a NI 43-101 Inferred Resource Report on Alfredo and on at least one lithium property in Argentina, the sellers would have the right to purchase, at a market-based price, shares of the company's common stock having an aggregate purchase price of up to $10 million less the dollar amount of any units subscribed for pursuant to the first option.

Li3 Energy is an early stage, U.S. public company pursuing a strategy in the lithium mining and energy sector in the Americas, with a focus on identifying and acquiring opportunities in Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Real-time, streaming research for companies and funds mentioned in FinancialWire(tm) news is available via the Investrend Research Syndicate (at http://investrend.stocksmart.com/ss/html/hpcompany.html). Current valuation analysis research for companies and funds mentioned in FinancialWire(tm) news is available via the Investrend Research Syndicate (at http://www.valuengine.com/rep/searchsrep?pid=42&srchfor=).

FinancialWire(tm) is committed to serving the financial community through true journalism and providing relevant resources to investors. Standards-based, independent equity research on numerous public other companies is available through the Investrend Research Syndicate (http://www.investrend.com/reports) written by FIRST Research Consortium (http://www.investrend.com/FIRST) member-providers. Free annual reports and company filings for companies mentioned in the news are available through the Investrend Information Syndicate (at http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279). FinancialWire(tm), in cooperation with the Investrend Broadcast Syndicate, also provides complete, daily conference call and webcast schedules as a service to shareholders and investors via the FirstAlert(tm) Network’s “FirstAlert(tm) Daily” (at http://www.financialwire.net/news-alerts/).

FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation from subject entities, companies, equities, or representatives thereof, for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is posted at the FinancialWire(tm) website (at http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php and http://www.financialwire.net/2010/04/23/safe-harbor/). Additional resources for investors are also accessible via the FinancialWire(tm) website (at http://www.financialwire.net/2010/04/23/investor-resources/). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.

Copyright © MMX, FinancialWire(tm); All rights reserved.

[hlmsmlh] [mnngmrls] [mrgrsacqstns] [ntrntnlcmpnsbsnss] [ltnmrcrmntl] [sthcntrlmrc] [ftrdnwswnd]

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.