Mineral Property Expenditures

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2017

Mineral Property Expenditures

Mineral Property Expenditures

6. MINERAL PROPERTY EXPENDITURES

Mineral property expenditures by geographical location for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 are as follows:

	For the Three Months Ended June 30,		For the Six Months Ended June 30,
	2017	2016	2017	2016
	(thousands of dollars)
Temrezli project, Turkey	$                    24	$                  180	$                  123	$                  421
Total Turkey projects	24	180	123	421
Kingsville Dome project, Texas	155	176	418	410
Rosita project, Texas	172	92	284	160
Vasquez project, Texas	114	102	283	260
Other projects, Texas	1	48	2	70
Total Texas projects	442	418	987	900
Cebolleta project, New Mexico	538	537	538	537
Juan Tafoya project, New Mexico	310	3	316	11
Other projects, New Mexico	2	-	2	-
Total New Mexico projects	850	540	856	548
Columbus Basin project, Nevada	72	-	188	-
Railroad Valley project, Nevada	155	-	158	-
Other projects, Nevada	2	-	3	-
Total Nevada projects	229	-	349	-
Sal Rica project, Utah	7	-	6	-
Total Utah projects	7	-	6	-
Total expense for the period	$              1,552	1,138	$              2,321	$              1,869

On June 20, 2017, the Company acquired its third lithium exploration project through the staking of 9,270 acres of federal placer mining claims within the Railroad Valley of central Nevada.

On March 24, 2017, the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary Lithium Holdings Nevada LLC entered into an option agreement to purchase a block of unpatented placer mining claims covering an area of approximately 3,000 acres within the Columbus Salt Marsh area of Esmeralda County, Nevada. The claims adjoin a portion of the Company’s current property holdings at its Columbus Basin project, expanding the project area within the basin to approximately 14,200 acres. The Company has the right to conduct exploration activities on the claims during the one-year option period. Under the option agreement, the Company may acquire the mineral property claims on or before March 24, 2018 in exchange for 200,000 shares of its common stock and a 1% NSR Royalty on the claims. The Company paid $75,000 for this option, which has been included as exploration expense for the Columbus Basin project.