Exploration starts for North Arrow lithium

North Arrow Minerals Inc. June 13 announced the start of its 2023 exploration field program at the company's DeStaffany lithium project in Northwest Territories, Canada.

Located on the shore of the Great Slave Lake, approximately 115 kilometers (71 miles) east of Yellowknife, NWT, the DeStaffany lithium project is already known to host two lithium-tantalum-niobium pegmatites – Moose 1 and 2.

More details on DeStaffany and the Moose pegmatites, as well as additional lithium exploration targets for North Arrow, can be read at Funding for North Arrow lithium projects in the May 19, 2023 edition of North of 60 Mining News.

"The start of this exploration program is an important milestone for North Arrow, as the DeStaffany lithium project represents a compelling spodumene pegmatite target with rapid evaluation potential," said North Arrow President and CEO Ken Armstrong.

Initially evaluated in the 1940s for the tantalum and niobium, the Moose pegmatites have never been subject to a focused evaluation of their lithium potential despite the exposure of very large spodumene crystals up to one meter in length.

Moose 1, which is exposed on surface for about 370 meters, is roughly five meters wide on average and is up to roughly 11 meters at its maximum exposed thickness. A 7.5-meter channel sample of this pegmatite averaged 1.5% lithium oxide.

Moose 2, which surfaces for about 450 meters along strike and is up to 30 meters wide, was bulk sampled for tantalum and niobium around the time of its initial discovery. This sampling returned up to 2.73% lithium oxide from samples over 250 meters of strike. This pegmatite, however, was never drilled for lithium due to the very few uses of this now-critical battery metal at that time.

"Historic tantalum mining of the Moose 2 pegmatite has exposed spodumene mineralization that is easily accessible for the mineralogical characterization sampling currently underway, and channel sampling of the Moose 1 pegmatite will provide the first full evaluation of spodumene mineralization and its distribution in this pegmatite," said Armstrong. "Furthermore, the property's first exploration drilling program is planned for later this summer and potential discovery of additional spodumene pegmatites during current fieldwork could add new targets to include as part of this drilling."

With funding for its program taken care of, the company plans to conduct mapping, channel sampling, and bulk sampling of spodumene zones for mineral characterization and recovery studies and eventually delineate drilling to define strike and depth extent of these zones.

"The combination of drilling and surface sampling at DeStaffany is intended to rapidly evaluate the resource potential of these pegmatites. Their location, within 300 metres of the shoreline of Great Slave Lake, is unique in the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province, and allows for excellent access to the property, including barge access to the NWT's railhead in Hay River," added Armstrong. "With the recent closing of a C$2.4 million financing and the start of exploration fieldwork, we look forward to reporting our progress at DeStaffany and North Arrow's other lithium exploration properties over the next several months."