WA-focused junior explorer Midas Minerals (ASX:MM1) announced its move into Canada with the purchase of land known to contain lithium-bearing rocks at surface.
The company has acquired a lithium project 102sq.km in size called Greenbush (not to be confused with the WA-based Greenbushes mine.)
The Canadian government has previously drill-tested rocks at surface within the tenements, also known as “outcrops.”
Drilling at those outcrop targets returned one result of a 15m long core equivalent grading 1.25% lithium oxide (Li2O). This is considered “high-grade” as per Next Investors classification for lithium grades over 1%.
What’s more, the outcrops in question are spodumene pegmatite, the holy grail of hard-rock lithium mining.
Since 1965, not much work has been carried out, barring some rockchip sampling in 2009.
“The Greenbush spodumene pegmatite outcropping highlights the potential of the project area due to the fact no drilling has been undertaken within 5km of the spodumene pegmatite outcrop,” Midas chief Mark Calderwood said.
“The southern Greenbush tenement group contains numerous small to very large pegmatite outcrops. Planned outcrop sampling should determine vectoring of mineralogy within these pegmatite swarms to prioritise new lithium-bearing targets.”
Tenements comprising the project are nearby or overlying the Greenbush Lake shear band zone and the Columbia River Fault, both types of geological formations which often provide the right conditions for mineralisation through time.
Midas is paying C$130,000 over twelve months for 100% of rights, and must spend C$5,000 (A$5.4k) on exploration in the next month
The company currently in ownership of Greenbush (an entity called 2060014 Ontario Inc) retains a 1% Net Smelter Royalty (NSR) which can be purchased by Midas “at any time” for a further C$500,000.
Any JORC-compliant resource boasting over 5m tonnes of ore at a grade of 1% lithium oxide “or equivalent” will also trigger a further payment by Midas to Ontario Inc.
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