The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - August 22, 2023
Since the program got underway in June, Li-FT has completed roughly 19,000 meters of drilling in 17 holes at its Yellowknife Lithium project in Northwest Territories.
Li-FT management examining a field of spodumene-bearing pegmatite boulders during a June visit to the Cali lithium project near the Yukon border in Northwest Territories.
Despite the need to evacuate its Hidden Lake exploration camp due to the extreme wildfire situation in and around the Northwest Territories capital of Yellowknife, Li-FT Power Ltd. has had a productive year of lithium exploration in the territory and plans to build on this success as soon as it is safe to do so.
Before the mid-August decision to move its people, essential equipment, and key drill core out of Hidden Lake Camp, Li-FT had already completed roughly 19,000 meters of drilling at its Yellowknife Lithium project, which includes an ensemble of 11 properties that make up a 141,572-hectare (349,832 acres) land package east of Yellowknife, NWT.
While waiting for the smoke to clear so that it can resume its 45,000-meter drill program at Yellowknife Lithium, Li-FT crews carried out initial exploration at Cali, an earlier-staged project near the Yukon border in western NWT.
"Our operational progress has been significant to date – we have drilled 117 holes into six different pegmatites and have submitted samples to the lab for assaying; results expected to be reported in batches over the coming weeks," said Li-FT Power CEO Francis MacDonald.
Li-FT's Yellowknife project has been divided into two groups – five properties in a road-accessible area a few kilometers east of the NWT capital and a cluster of six properties about 50 kilometers (30 miles) further east.
This year's drilling has focused primarily on building an initial resource at the large outcropping pegmatites extending across the company's road-accessible group properties – Fi, Ki, Shorty, Big, and Nite.
In late July, assays began rolling in from drilling carried out at the Fi Southwest and Fi Main pegmatite dykes that extend for roughly 3,300 meters across the Fi property are the first targets being drilled.
Fi Southwest, the shorter but wider of the two dykes, extends for about 1,100 meters and averages about 21 meters thick on surface.
Fi Main, which lies about 250 meters to the northeast, can be traced for about 2,200 meters along the surface. This dyke consists of two branching segments, each averaging 10 meters in width. Ten trenches cut across this portion of the dykes averaged 1.3% lithium oxide over 14.8 meters.
Five 230-kilogram bulk samples collected from the Fi property by Equinox Resources in the 1980s averaged 1.33% lithium oxide.
As of Aug. 21, Li-FT had published results from seven holes drilled at Fi Southwest and 16 holes drilled at Fi Main.
Highlights from the Fi Southwest drilling include:
• 35 meters averaging 1.3% lithium oxide in hole YLP0001.
• 39 meters averaging 1.43% lithium oxide in hole YLP0003.
• 33 meters averaging 1.39% lithium oxide in hole YLP0004.
• 79 meters averaging 1.13% lithium oxide in hole YLP0005.
• 60 meters averaging 1.26% lithium oxide in hole YLP00007.
"Fi Southwest continues to deliver high-grade spodumene over significant widths," said MacDonald. "Hole YLP0007 extends the strike length of spodumene mineralization to 335 metres."
Highlights from the Fi Main drilling include:
• 26 meters averaging 1.22% lithium oxide in hole YLP0011.
• 30 meters averaging 1.13% lithium oxide in hole YLP0017.
• 30 meters averaging 1.1% lithium oxide in hole YLP0023.
"The first drill holes into the Fi Main pegmatite have delivered some excellent intersects as well," the Li-FT Power CEO added. "Spodumene percentages are in line with mapping that has been completed on surface."
In addition to Fi, Li-FT has completed drilling at the Ki, Shorty, and Big East pegmatites on its road-accessible properties, along with Shorty on its further afield group of properties.
With Hidden Lake Camp and the entire city of Yellowknife evacuated, Li-FT is focusing its exploration on Cali, which lies about six kilometers (3.7 miles) from the Howard's Pass access road and 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of the historical Cantung tungsten mine in western NWT.
This property covers a portion of the Little Nahanni Pegmatite Group, which covers a 13- by 2.5-kilometer (eight by 1.6 miles) area.
Historical mapping shows parallel dykes at Cali that outcrop over a 500-meter strike length over corridors up to 100-meters wide.
A visit this summer by Li-FT geologists confirm previous indications that these dykes contain the lithium mineral spodumene and could extend for up to 1,100 meters along strike.
"The extent of this spodumene pegmatite dyke swarm is impressive and we believe there is excellent potential at the CALI project to demonstrate a large spodumene resource that is also relatively close to transportation infrastructure," said MacDonald.
The current exploration program is focused on gaining a better understanding of the average grade across the dyke's exposed strike length with systematic rock sampling and mapping.
The Li-FT geologists are also carrying out soil sampling and prospecting for other parallel dykes and dyke extensions trending onto the Cali property from the south.
"During our recent field visit to the CALI property in late June, we were very impressed with the amount of spodumene-bearing boulders covering the surface," the Li-FT CEO added. "The spodumene percentages that we observed were quite high and we also expect very good grades to come back from surface sampling."
The company plans to integrate the data collected into a 3D geology model for exploration targeting and planning for a drill program slated for Cali in 2024.
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.
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