Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
QMC Quantum Minerals (TSXV: QMC; US-OTC: QMCQF) has visually identified spodumene in the first diamond holes it has drilled into its Irgon lithium project in the Cat Lake-Winnipeg River rare-element pegmatite field in southeast Manitoba.
The company is currently amid phase one of a two phase drill program at Irgon, designed to confirm and expand the project’s historical resource that Lithium Corporation of Canada tabled in 1956. According to the historical resource, the project contains 1.08 million tonnes grading 1.51% lithium oxide over a 365 metre strike length and to a 213 metre depth.
During the 1950s, Lithium Corporation of Canada installed a mining plant on-site designed to process roughly 450 tonnes of ore per day and sank a three compartment shaft 74 metres below surface. At the 61-metre level, it dug 366 metres of lateral drifting. It suspended work in 1957, waiting for a more favourable market. Eventually the mine buildings were removed.
During its phase one program, QMC will drill 1,500 metres at Irgon across 12 holes. With its first eight holes, the company aims to confirm historical grades and widths from 1953 and 1954 drill results. It will drill its four remaining holes into a possible western extension of the current Irgon resource area.
After completing the phase one program, QMC aims to table an updated National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate for Irgon. It says the phase two program will test additional targets on the property.
This article first appeared in The Northern Miner.
