Montero Mining & Exploration Ltd. agreed to team up with a private geological consortium to explore for lithium in Chile's Atacama Region.

The company said Oct. 10 that it has 15 months to make application for prospective target areas and complete due diligence sampling, with application made for more than 13,800 hectares of contiguous ground.

Montero Mining said the 13,800-hectare area covers one of the targets defined by preliminary sampling, with exploration licenses expected to be awarded in November.

Upon granting of the licenses and completion of due diligence, the company will grant the consortium a 1.5% net smelter royalty and issue C$100,000 worth of shares. It will issue another C$600,000 worth of shares once it is confident that ore-grade material can be mined from the deposits and processed economically.