The US faces stiff challenges as it moves to create its own electric vehicle supply chain, with the extent of the country's metal reserves largely unknown and only a few facilities to process minerals and produce batteries.
No decision will be made until the end of 2020, when the company expects to have completed a study on the Jadar, which is estimated to contain 10% of the world's lithium reserves.
The Piskanja project has an indicated mineral resource of 7.8 million tonnes averaging 31% B2O3, and an inferred resource of 3.4 million tonnes averaging 28.6% B2O3.
The exceptional D colour Type IIa gem was recovered in March from the company’s iconic Cullinan mine, the same that yielded the biggest diamond ever in 1905.
ASIC has for months been probing how Merlin Diamonds has loaned A$13 million of investor money to a private company, AXIS Consultants, which has long been associated with the miner's chairman and his family.