Zinc or Ireland (ASX:ZMI) through its wholly owned subsidiary Avignon Resources (Canada) has acquired 1,380km-square lithium exploration project in the Superior Province in Manitoba, Canada.
The project comprises 7 mining claims 40km west of the Tanco lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) mine, which has been in operation for more than 50 years, as well as 6 mineral exploration licences (MELs) and 4 additional MEL areas under application.
Chairman Peter Huljich says: “The overall exploration potential of Manitoba is immense and we feel that, despite some obvious exceptions, that the province’s overall lithium exploration potential has flown underneath the radar while LCT discoveries have been occuring at pace, and in some cases along strike, within the same rocks in Ontario.
The amount of new applications for fertile LCT exploration ground is now gathering pace, so we believe that our timing couldn’t be better.
Our first pass target generation will involve a lot of satellite data interpretation. We have sizeable areas to explore for LCT targets so appropriate expertise has been brought in to help us progress.
We are confident that we have put together a skilled team that can leverage this opportunity and we look forward to putting teams in the field and ground truthing targets for follow up drilling later in the year. We also look forward to meeting and creating partnerships with the traditional owners in each of the areas we intend to explore and we have commenced that engagement process.”
The company says the newly acquired project areas are largely unexplored in terms of lithium exploration. As such, Zinc of Ireland has begun following up on known LCT pegmatites and additional new target generation.
Target generation has been designed to identify outcropping pegmatites, as well as delineating structural and lithological regimes suitable to their emplacement.
Field exploration is scheduled to begin in May 2024 with geology teams to conduct ground truthing, mapping, and sampling of priority one targets.
Follow up mapping and sampling and/or scout drilling of any ‘significant’ LCT discoveries is also scheduled for Q3 2024.
Zinc of Ireland is a Perth-based zinc explorer focused on its ‘high-grade’ Irish-type zinc projects in Ireland and Western Australia.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Zinc of Ireland
