Critical Resources fires up 2023 lithium drill run

ASX-listed and Canada-based lithium explorer Critical Resources (ASX:CRR) has kicked off its 2023 drilling campaign with a minimum 20,000 metres of core to be collected. 

The company’s flagship asset is the Mavis Lake Project based in Ontario, Canada. The company has previously reported high-grade lithium from the project. 

So far, Critical states its exploration team has only covered 1% of the total acreage it holds in Ontario. 

That claim is possible due to the fact the company expanded its total acreage by 320% last month. 

Critical Resources chief Alex Cheeseman has his eye on nearly 30 assays due back to the company, as 2023 drilling gets underway. 

“We have extension drilling underway, drill-ready targets surrounding the Main Zone and assays from 29 drill holes pending from our 2022 program,” Cheeseman said. 

High grade potential

Investor advisory firm Next Investors classifies high-grade lithium as that in concentrations greater than 1%. 

Last year, Critical found a 1 metre long core section returning lithium grades of 4.3%, firmly landing in high-grade territory. 

While that result was piecemeal in nature compared to larger core sections, the find spurred confidence among the company’s exploration team. 

Management claims those results were among the highest hard-rock lithium grades reported ASX-wide throughout 2022. 

“Following the success of the 2022 drilling program and the exceptional results we have delivered from Mavis Lake, including some of the highest grading assay results released in 2022,” Cheeseman claimed. 

2023 ahoy 

Now, Critical is gearing up to drill throughout 2023, where the Northern Hemisphere’s weather patterns allow. It’s still winter for Canada right now, and works will progress as conditions ease. 

A second drill rig is being mobilised to site which will be tasked with drill testing mapped lithium-bearing spodumene pegmatite outcrops. 

Pegmatite rock is the typical hard-rock host geology for lithium mineralisation, with the pegmatite spodumene being the holy grail. Lepidolite, another style of pegmatite, is the second most common but harder to refine downstream.

The drill rig will sink holes around the outcrop targets to ascertain in which directions lithium mineralisation continues (and where it doesn’t) towards the formation of a geological model to inform further mine development. 

The mineralisation system within the 1% of acreage explored was extended in August last year when infill drilling successfully hit continuations of mineralisation underground. 

The company continues to progress towards a maiden Joint Ore Reserve Committee (JORC) compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the project. 

Considerations 

While lithium remains the hottest commodity on the radar, Critical Resources’ one year returns are not particularly alluring. 

• One year performance is down -38.3%. 

• Year to date performance is up 4.65%. 

• The company has a market cap of $71.5m. 

• It is ranked 283 of 942 constituents in the Materials sector. 

• The 4 week average trading volume is 4.8m shares. 

• The company finished the September 2022 quarter with $5.5m in cash. 

• It spent $546,000 in opex over the same period.

• Investment activity spend was $3.02m.

Critical Resources' six month charts