Manganese X Energy (TSXV: MN) announced that its team in New Brunswick, eastern Canada, will start drilling for ‘electric gold’ at the Battery Hill project.
In a press release, the miner said that the plan is to drill 25 holes totalling a minimum of 3,200 metres, at an average depth per hole of 100 to 250 metres. The focus will be on near-surface, higher grade areas of the deposit such as the Moody Hill zones.
Previous diamond drilling on the property totalled 5188 metres in 25 holes and was completed over a 1.8-kilometre strike length of the prospective manganese occurrence trend.
According to Manganese X, most holes intercepted significant grades and widths of manganese mineralization such as 10.75% Mn over 52.6 metres in SF-16-05, 12.96% Mn over 32.85 metres in SF-16-08 and 9.39% Mn over 74.0 metres in SF-17-18.
In the media brief, Martin Kepman, Manganese X’s CEO, said that the objective of the current campaign is to expand and upgrade Battery Hill’s current classification of mineralization to inferred or higher resource status.
“We are accelerating our drilling agenda to take advantage of the current attention and demand on manganese as a key cathode component in battery chemistry,” Kepman said.
“Tesla Battery Day was a call to action for companies in the energy metals sector. Elon Musk is looking to source battery-grade manganese which we have dubbed ‘electric gold’ from the North American chain. We feel our property, being 12 miles from the US border gives us a decided advantage. We are the only manganese property in North America on a fast track to commercialization.”
Battery Hill is located beside the hamlet of Jacksonville and 5 kilometres northwest of Woodstock, New Brunswick. The project is approximately 6 kilometres long on a north-south axis and approximately 1.7 kilometres wide, east-west.