The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Discovery Alaska discovers battery metal at tin-silver target North of 60 Mining News – May 20, 2022
The lightest of all metals, lithium is in high demand due to its importance to electric vehicle batteries. Discovery Alaska has identified a potential source of this battery metal at the Coal Creek tin-silver-zinc prospect on its Chulitna property.
Click on image to expand.
Nearly all the 50 minerals critical to the United States can be found at mines, deposits, and prospects across Alaska. Intriguing lithium occurrences, however, have not been identified in America's Last Frontier – until now.
Discovery Alaska Ltd. says it has identified lithium at the Coal Creek prospect on its Chulitna property about four miles west of the Parks Highway midway between Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska.
Discovery acquired the Chulitna property early last year through the staking of roughly 77 square miles of state mining claims covering the Partin Creek gold-silver-copper prospect and the Coal Creek tin-silver-zinc target.
By taking a closer look at core from drilling that has been carried out at Coal Creek since the 1980s, the Australia-based exploration company has found evidence that Coal Creek also has lithium.
Coal Creek was discovered by the late Charles Hawley in 1972 and explored by Houston Oil and Minerals in the 1980s.
After drilling 42 holes, Houston Oil estimated the Coal Creek deposit contained roughly 4.8 million metric tons averaging 0.27% tin.
While the resource does not meet the rigor of current reporting standards, sampling of core stored at the Alaska Geologic Materials Center in Anchorage and four holes drilled in 2006 confirms the tin-silver potential of this easily accessible property.
Highlights from the previous drilling include 9.4 meters averaging 0.41% tin, 18.21 grams per metric ton silver and 0.81% zinc; and 9.3 meters averaging 0.45% tin, 11.95 g/t silver, and 0.29% zinc.
Discovery has now found evidence of lithium mineralization in the Coal Creek core stored at Alaska GMC.
The company used a SciAps Z-901 LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy) handheld analyzer – a scanner similar to the XRF (X-ray fluorescence) scanners commonly used in mineral exploration – to determine the rudimentary lithium content of 12 initial holes selected for scanning.
Discovery says this initial scan detected lithium across broad zones in all twelve holes.
"The company is excited to identify the first lithium prospect in Alaska, with access to extensive historic drill core that will allow us to rapidly expedite exploration works at Coal Creek, and in a strategic location close to the major Parks Highway and the state-owned Alaska railroad," said Discovery Alaska Director Jerko Zuvela.
This discovery comes at a time when the demand for and price of lithium are at all-time highs due to the explosive growth of electric vehicles and the lithium-ion batteries that power them.
The price for a metric ton of battery-grade lithium has rocketed from about US$7,000 at the onset of 2021 to current prices of around US$60,000/t.
Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, a global authority on lithium battery supply chains, estimates that US$7 billion a year will be invested between now and 2028 if the mining sector is going to keep pace with EV-driven lithium demand by the end of the decade.
While little is yet known about Coal Creek's potential to be an economically viable lithium project, Discovery says historical data and the preliminary scans indicate the previously unrecognized lithium mineralization could be widespread.
The scanner identified variable intervals of lithium throughout the intrusive units encountered at Coal Creek that correlate primarily with concentrated tourmaline and lithium-bearing greisen zones with stockwork veining, as well as within a lithium-bearing aplite porphyry unit.
A historical report for Coal Creek includes a cross-section highlighting the extent of greisen alteration within the target area, and near several of the scanned drill holes. Moderate to strong lithium readings continue to the bottom of several drill holes, indicating the potential for further lithium-bearing zones remaining open at depth.
These lithium-bearing zones are also prospective for tantalum, niobium, and other critical minerals.
"The company will accelerate works to test the remaining prospective drill core to determine potential scale of the lithium bearing zone," said Zuvela. "We look forward to realising the lithium potential at our Coal Creek prospect and advancing works toward delineating a maiden JORC (Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee) resource."
Discovery has engaged its specialist Alaskan professional geological consulting services group to conduct and manage the Coal Creek works program. This firm is also carrying out this year's program at the Partin Creek gold-silver target about six miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Coal Creek.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
Reader Comments(0)