- Demand for lithium batteries in electric vehicles, energy storage devices and portable electronics continues to fuel lithium market forecasts
- QMC working with SGS Canada, Inc. to search out buried minerals through mobile metal ion (“MMI”) geochemical survey
- Company confident that additional exploration will expand property resource, historically reported to be in excess of 1.2 million tons grading at 1.5 percent Li2O
As investment research agencies continue to predict a boom market for lithium suppliers, QMC Quantum Minerals Corp. (OTC: QMCQF) (TSX.V: QMC) (FSE: 3LQ) is moving forward with its plans to explore and develop a historical spodumene-bearing pegmatite resource located within Manitoba’s prolific Cat Lake-Winnipeg River rare-element pegmatite field.
Lithium Investing News joins a variety of market watchers in predicting that the excitement over junior miners’ efforts to fire up potential North American lithium extraction sites will be more than a flash in the pan as electric vehicles, energy storage systems and high-drain portable electronics call for low-heat, highly efficient batteries — the type that rely on limited supply elements such as lithium and cobalt. The investment news agency, citing research by the Freedonia Group, predicts that global demand for lithium metal will rise to 49,350 metric tons by next year, with a lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) valuation of the global market projected to be $1.7 billion (http://nnw.fm/pfM3e).
This optimistic forecast coincides with QMC Quantum Minerals’ efforts to evaluate and revitalize its 100 percent-owned Irgon Lithium Mine Project. The property presents the prospect of a quick production ramp up once the company establishes market potential, particularly as part of the initial exploration and development 65 years ago, a 500-ton-per-day mill was erected onsite (which was subsequently removed from the property in 1963). A future production decision by QMC will be facilitated by the fact that significant infrastructure remains in place, including an underground complex of a three-compartment shaft, drifts and crosscuts that can be put to use in new exploration without having to start from scratch at ground level (http://nnw.fm/hYbW2).
Even though the company has historic underground development, the Irgon Dike’s lithium mineralization begins directly at the surface. QMC Quantum Minerals is preparing to evaluate and potentially expand Irgon Dike strike extensions in addition to evaluating other spodumene-bearing pegmatite dikes that have been identified on the property by undertaking a mobile metal ion geochemical survey (mobile metal ions in this case will include elements such as lithium, cesium, niobium, tantalum, rubidium, beryllium, etc.). These pathfinder elements have been released from underlying pegmatite mineralization and have traveled upward through the soil profile. In May, the company announced that SGS Canada, Inc. would provide expertise and assistance during the upcoming Irgon exploration and, on July 24, QMC announced that SGS will be assisting with the collection of the MMI geochemical samples and will provide analysis of MMI samples using its exclusive MMI technology (http://nnw.fm/oWe9N).
Planning has begun for the MMI survey for buried mineralization over selected target areas at the Irgon Mine Property. According to both SGS and QMC, the MMI geochemical survey is a proven, advanced exploration technique that has been utilized elsewhere to identify buried mineral (pegmatite) deposits. The search will begin over mineralized areas above the Irgon Dike and work its way westward to identify any buried strike extensions of the Irgon Dike.
“Using careful soil sampling strategies, sophisticated chemical ligands and ultra-sensitive instrumentation, SGS is able to measure the concentration of these ions. … After interpretation, MMI data will indicate anomalous target areas on which to focus the subsequent drill program,” the news release states.
The historical exploration of the Irgon Dike more than six decades ago, long before the price of lithium reached its current fever levels, identified a resource estimate of over 1.2 million tons grading 1.51 percent Li2O over a strike length of 1,200 feet and to a depth of 700 feet. This historical assessment is currently in the process of being upgraded to modern NI 43-101 reporting standards, with the reported historic resource expected to be potentially expanded both along strike and to depth.
QMC has stated that its re-evaluation of historical assessment reports filed on the property led it to identify an additional historical exploration target that encompasses “a large, untested lithium soil anomaly” more than 3,600 feet long and up to 1,150 feet wide across the southern part of the property. Exploration of this target area will be part of the upcoming MMI geochemical survey and is certainly a reason for the company’s enthusiasm.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.QMCMinerals.com
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