Big Oil seizes lithium opportunities
Mining companies could benefit in cash and technology as major fossil fuel companies invest in lithium.
92 Resources (TSXV: NTY; US-OTC: RGDCF) recently acquired the 37 sq. km Silver Sands vanadium project in Pine Pass, eastern British Columbia, by paying $15,000 in staking costs. The vendor retains a 2% net smelter returns royalty on the property.
Vanadium’s spot price has risen more than 550% since September 2016, and is nearing its highest point since 2005.
Silver Sands lies just east of Ethos Gold’s (TSXV: ECC; US-OTC: ETHOF) Pine Pass vanadium project where recent exploration efforts by Ethos sampled phosphatic black shales grading as high as 0.48% vanadium over 130 metres and 0.45% vanadium over 27 metres. The vanadium horizon in Pine Pass outcrops semi-continuously for 20 km.
The company says it acquired the property because of increasing demand for vanadium, and in particular vanadium-redox flow batteries. It says vanadium’s spot price has risen more than 550% since September 2016, and is nearing its highest point since 2005.
The company recently discovered lithium bearing pegmatite on its Pontax lithium property in the James Bay region of Quebec. The results came from a 2018 surface exploration program that consisted of prospecting and rock sampling over a one week period. Grab samples graded as high as 0.94% lithium and 0.72% lithium.
A month earlier, the company returned channel samples grading 2.28% lithium over 6 metres and 1.54% lithium over 8 metres at its Corvette lithium property, in the same region of Quebec.
Shares of 92 Resources are currently trading at 4¢ with a 52-week range of 3¢ to 26¢. The company has a $2.5 million market capitalization.
This article first appeared in the Northern Miner
