Mineral Property Expenditures

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2017

Mineral Property Expenditures

Mineral Property Expenditures

6. MINERAL PROPERTY EXPENDITURES

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

	For the Three Months Ended Sep 30,				For the Nine Months Ended Sep 30,
	2017		2016		2017		2016
	(thousands of dollars)
Temrezli project, Turkey	$	63	$	31	$	186	$	453
Total Turkey projects		63		31		186		453
Kingsville Dome project, Texas		197		214		616		624
Rosita project, Texas		188		130		472		290
Vasquez project, Texas		117		105		399		365
Other projects, Texas		26		11		30		80
Total Texas projects		528		460		1,517		1,359
Cebolleta project, New Mexico		-		-		538		537
Juan Tafoya project, New Mexico		38		37		354		48
Other projects, New Mexico		-		32		2		32
Total New Mexico projects		38		69		894		617
Columbus Basin project, Nevada		481		113		667		113
Railroad Valley project, Nevada		80		-		238		-
Other projects, Nevada		8		14		11		14
Total Nevada projects		569		127		916		127
Sal Rica project, Utah		118		352		124		352
Total Utah projects		118		352		124		352
Total expense for the period	$	1,316		1,039	$	3,637	$	2,908

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.