Today Grid Metals Corp (TSXV: GRDM) (OTCQB: MSMGF) announced the acquisition of mineral rights comprising the Falcon West Lithium Property, located approximately 110 km east of Winnipeg, Manitoba and 100 km south of the company’s major Donner Lake lithium property.
The property covers 61,268 hectares and -70 km of strike length of a geological contact zone that features several drill intersected spodumene-rich zones with high indicated lithium grades.
The initial focus of exploration in 2023 will be the ADL (the ArtDon and Lucy pegmatites) target area, which comprises a 1.25km trend of outcropping lithium bearing pegmatites.
Key Takeaways
- Grid’s Donner Lake property is testing rocks at 1.28% lithium while the Falcon West lithium assays from historical drill holes are reading 2.16%-3.5% lithium.
- While Donner Lake is estimated to hold at least 3.8M tons of lithium, a previous resource estimate for the new Falcon West property estimates 227,000 tons from only a small portion of the Lucy Pegmatite. Significant drilling upside remains.
- The Grid team commented that their first priority for drilling will be the Artdon and Lucy Pegmatites which hold the most promise, but the property is largely unexplored leaving lots of exploration potential over time.
- The Falcon West acquisition is highly complementary to Grid’s other lithium property 100km to the north, and will likely serve as an additional source of lithium to feed Grid’s unique future processing agreement with Tanco mines.
- Falcon West is located in an infrastructure-rich area with all roads, rail lines and electrical lines already available for use. Moving the additional lithium resource to market has largely been derisked due to nearby infrastructure already in place.
Key Attributes of the Falcon West Lithium Property
- Spodumene-bearing pegmatites assaying up to 3.51% Li2O over 4.57 metres as part of a 12.2 metre section assaying 2.16%Li2O are noted in historical drill holes (Manitoba Mineral Inventory Card #119, Hole 24, East Braintree Lithium Corp., 1955 – Lucy Pegmatite).
- Pegmatites are noted in historic assessment report drill logs along a strike length of over 6 km including the ADL target area.
- The ADL target is of immediate importance given its >1 km strike length of outcropping and previously drill intersected spodumene-bearing pegmatites.
- A non-compliant, historical resource* of 226,800 tonnes of 1.75 % Li2O was estimated on a portion of the Lucy Pegmatite.
- The Lucy Pegmatite has been described as being zoned, flay lying, well fractionated and similar to the Tanco Pegmatite (Manitoba Assessment File #94845)
- Validation sampling of the Artdon pegmatite completed earlier this year by Grid returned individual grab sample grades of up to 2.97% Li2O.
- Most of the ~70 km long prospective geological contact zone has had little or no historical lithium exploration work.
- Grid Metals controls 100% of the mineral rights with a 2% NSR royalty held by the vendors of the ADL target area claims but with no NSR royalty on the majority of the Falcon West claims.
- Property is located approximately 110 km west of Winnipeg and 100 km south of Grid’s Donner Lake lithium project and features excellent infrastructure including the Trans-Canada Highway, major trans-continental rail lines, hydro-electric power lines and the Trans Canada pipeline.
Grid Metals Project Location Map in Southeastern Manitoba
The Falcon West Property represents a strategic investment by Grid that is complementary to Grid’s existing Donner Lake Lithium property on which the company is currently completing an initial program of resource delineation drilling. The acquisition transforms Grid into a multi property lithium explorer/developer.
Robin Dunbar, President and CEO of Grid Metals Corp commented:
“Falcon West is a project of great potential that has flown under the radar despite its known lithium pedigree and close proximity to the Tanco rare metal mine and mill. It is a rare occurrence in today’s active lithium market when a company can amalgamate such a large mineral claim package with known lithium-bearing pegmatites. The company looks forward to working with local First Nation governments and the Province of Manitoba to increase the lithium economic potential in the region. These are exciting times for the province as it further cements its position as a major, future source of critical metals including lithium and nickel.”
Geological Overview and the ADL Target Trend
The property is located within the West Hawk Lake Greenstone Belt area of southeastern Manitoba. Lithium-bearing pegmatites that have been historically known in the area are hosted in mafic volcanic rock units present at the contact between the Wabigoon and Winnipeg River geological Sub provinces. Grid Metals has staked approximately 70 km of this prospective mafic volcanic and granitic contact.
The initial focus for exploration will be on an area of known spodumene-bearing pegmatites herein referred to as the ADL Target.
The ADL Target trend, which includes the Artdon Pegmatite and Lucy Pegmatite, is the first priority for upcoming exploration efforts. It is approximately 1250 metres in length and historic work suggests that the pegmatites may be connected and/or form part of a larger system.
Terms of Property Acquisition
Most of the Property was acquired via online staking and is owned 100% by Grid Metals and has no underlying NSR royalty. Grid has purchased the Lucy Claims for $300,000 cash and 200,000 Grid common shares (less than 0.1% of shares outstanding) with a holding period on the shares of not less than 4 months and 1 day. Grid can purchase 1% of the NSR for $1 million and has a right of first refusal to purchase any part of the NSR.
The issuance of the shares is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Grid has previously purchased the claim that hosts the ArtDon pegmatite for $20,000 cash and 50,000 common Grid shares.
