Rare Earth Minerals PLC Tuesday said its stage-two drilling at the Fleur-El Sauz Lithium Project in Mexico is now complete and plans are moving forward with the development of the site.

The rare metals and minerals projects investment company said the successful drilling has meant that its rig will remain on site for an infill drilling programme in the southern portion of the Sauz claim.

The additional drilling will include five to six holes in order to upgrade the resources from the inferred to indicated category in preparation of the pre-feasibility study for the site.

The company said that afterwards, the drilling activities will move to the new Megalit Concession in the southernmost recognised drilling area.

Rare Earth also said its trenching programme will commence shortly in the Buenavista claim area, where over 1,300 parts per million lithium grades have been obtained in surface sampling.

The company recently announced that an additional seven new holes at the site showed lithium values averaging 1,683 parts per million over 20.88 metres in the upper clay and 4,821 parts per million over 20.88 metres in the lower clay, in line with expectations.

Rare Earth Minerals said that an additional five holes drilled further along strike to the southeast had extended the deposit by three kilometres further than previously drilled, with analytical results pending.

In October, the company announced a maiden lithium carbonate estimated resource for the project at 1.5 million tonnes from 88.2 million tonnes of clay at an average grade of 1.68% lithium and a cut-off grade of 2,000 parts per million lithium.

Furthermore, the company announced in January that it plans to build a new pilot plant to take advantage of positive recent results. The company said on Monday that it expects construction to be complete in roughly six weeks and that it now considers its goal of producing battery grade lithium carbonate very possible.

Rare Earth Minerals has a 32.2% interest in the joint venture with Bacanora Mineral Ltd, but it has an option to earn up to a 49.9% interest. Rare Earth Minerals shares were up 8.5% to 0.564 pence Monday.