Canada-focused lithium explorer Metals Australia (ASX:MLS) is preparing for the start of drilling and trenching to test priority gold, silver and lithium targets at the Corvette River Project in Québec.
The company is now fully permitted to drill targets along a 22km strike, including some that previously returned high grades of up to 29.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 44.1g/t silver from rock chip sampling.
Metals Australia’s project is along strike and on a parallel belt to Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX:PMT) Corvette Lithium Project within the Lac Guyer greenstone belt in the James Bay region.
Patriot’s Corvette Project hosts an initial inferred resource of 109 million tonnes at 1.42% lithium at the CV5 pegmatite target. The company is currently in a trading halt as it prepares to tap investors for $44 million, reportedly at an offer price of $0.85, or a 14.6% discount to its last closing price.
The 19-hole, 4,750m diamond drilling program will also test priority lithium-bearing pegmatite targets.
The CR1 lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite, located within the Corvette Lithium Trend 2.5km west of Patriot’s CV9 spodumene-bearing pegmatite, has been mapped over a 1.6km-strike length.
Meanwhile, the CS1 LCT pegmatite is believed to be around 40m thick and remaining open to the east and west, with two earlier first-pass samples found 44m apart returning lithium grades of 370 parts per million (ppm) and 290ppm.
CEO Paul Ferguson says apart from the Corvette lithium discovery, Québec’s “highly endowed” Lac Guyer greenstone belt also hosts many other major gold and silver deposits, including Newmont’s (NYSE:NEM, TSX:NGT) ~215,000-ounce-per-annum Éléonore Gold Mine.
“With the permitting now in place, Metals Australia is in the final stages of operational planning, budgeting, and contracting with our full-service exploration contractor, Magnor Exploration, to commence the drilling and trenching program as soon as possible,” he says.
Permitting approvals allow Metals Australia to undertake 16 trenches.
Metals Australia also owns the 13.3-million-tonne Lac Rainy Flake Graphite Project in eastern Québec.
This week Mining.com.au is profiling Canada’s mining industry, which is a major cornerstone of the country’s economy. Today’s instalment looks at Ontario.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Metals Australia
