The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
With a demand crisis dependent on a single element, Northwest Territories has waited long enough for its time North of 60 Mining News – October 6, 2023
A Li-FT Power geologist explores Fi Main, one of the lithium-enriched pegmatite dykes on the company's Yellowknife Lithium project in Northwest Territories.
Incorporated in 1945, DeStaffany Tantalum-Beryllium Mines Ltd. began operating the mine named after discoverer Gus DeStaffany.
A spodumene megacryst located at the SD2 pegmatite on its LDG lithium property.
Like many other northern regions, Canada's North was settled because of its mineral resources. When the Canadian Dominion Government first purchased its arctic regions from the British Crown in the late 1800s, the Northwest Territories was seen as a vast stretch of cold, inhospitable land and was thus largely ignored at the time. However, due to the Klondike Gold Rush, the future of these northern lands would change forever. These days, a new rush has arisen, a white gold rush for lithium in Northwest Territories.
With the market for electric vehicles and battery storage technology predicted to skyrocket in coming years, demand for critical minerals continues to grow in turn. With this, lithium appears poised to recharge NWT's exploration sector.
Much of the history of mining in NWT has occurred in the southern region of the territory, with the north remaining one of the largest untapped mining areas in the world.
Commercial mining began in this region with the Eldorado uranium mine in 1933, followed by the establishment of the Con, Negus, and Rycon gold mines later in the decade.
While gold mining continued to bloom throughout the 1940s and 50s and would almost exclusively dominate the mining sector until the establishment of both the Cantung tungsten mine (which remains dormant) and the Pine Point zinc-lead mine (now owned and explored by Osisko Metals Inc.) in 1962, the diamond surge separated much of the metals resource exploration for gemstones.
Although diamonds have remained a mainstay in NWT's economy, spodumene-bearing pegmatites that host the desired lithium were discovered in the Yellowknife area around the time gold was discovered.
But, as lithium was of little interest to prospectors of the time, obsessed still with the fortune-making gold strikes the capital was initially founded on, it has sat by the wayside until now.
That is not to say that no lithium properties were ever developed. The DeStaffany Mine, now owned and being explored by North Arrow Minerals Ltd., produced some 17,052 pounds of lithium in the late 1940s and early 1950s before the mine closed due to lack of demand, although even this was just as byproduct from tantalum production.
Exploration of these early pegmatites continued through the 1970s and 1980s, with companies conducting bulk samples of the most promising targets. By the late 1980s, however, this work was ultimately shelved, as attention would quickly shift to a dazzling discovery nearby – a discovery that would set off the greatest diamond staking rush in North American history.
With this white metal overshadowed by white gems, even the introduction of the lithium-ion battery in the early 90s did not shift attention back toward these prospective lithium deposits, where they have lain dormant for another three decades.
Nevertheless, after almost 100 years, interest in Northwest Territories' lithium is once again picking up.
A highly reactive yet inflammable element, lithium is the lightest of all metals and the first alkali metal in the periodic table, which consists of six elements: lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, and francium.
Discovered in 1817 by Swedish chemist Johan August Arfwedson, lithium is notable as one of the three elements theorized to be synthesized during the Big Bang, along with hydrogen and helium. The word lithium is derived from the Greek lithos, which translates simply to stone.
Lithium is used by various industries for its very light weight and its outstanding properties used in electrochemical energy storage technologies. Today, roughly 60% of the lithium produced worldwide is used to manufacture batteries, which has climbed from 30% in recent years. This lightest of all the metals is also needed for the manufacture of heat-resistant glass and ceramics, lubricants, steel and aluminum, rubber, and more.
Found throughout the world, lithium does not exist in a pure state in nature but can be extracted in small quantities from rock, clay, and brine. Currently, lithium has been found to be most abundant in Latin America – with more than half of the estimated global resources being located in the salt flats of Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
But since the white rush has begun, manufacturers have been scrambling wherever this metal may be found, and old records point toward Northwest Territories.
As the market for rechargeable batteries, electric cars, and solar panels continues to expand, so does the market for one of their instrumental materials – lithium.
Supporting this growth, Northwest Territories has quickly become a prospective target for this energy metal.
In December 2022, the Canadian government released details of a C$3.8 billion (US$2.8 billion) Critical Minerals Strategy to fund research and innovation, supply chain infrastructure, and targeted geoscience exploration.
The government also announced a new Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit.
Combined with the existing flow-through share program, it provides a 30% tax credit to investors for certain exploration expenses incurred by Canadian companies' exploration for critical minerals.
Given more than half of the 31 critical minerals in Canada's strategy have been found within the borders of NWT, the Government of Northwest Territories has also acted, taking advantage of the opportunity to become a hub of critical mineral investment.
That same month, the NWT Geological Survey released a new compilation of critical mineral showings highlighting the distribution of critical mineral finds in the territory.
"We are at a pivotal time for the NWT," said Caroline Wawzonek, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI). "Resource availability, technology, market demand and global interest are coming together to create extraordinary opportunities for investment."
While the International Energy Agency forecasts that annual demand for lithium will increase 40-fold in the next two decades and the move toward a net-zero carbon economy fully reinvigorates lithium exploration to its busiest period in more than 50 years; for North America, nowhere is this opportunity greater than the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province.
Although lithium was discovered during the 1940s, in the mid to late 1970s, numerous pegmatites were discovered within a 100-kilometer (62-mile) radius to the east, northeast, and southeast of the capital of Northwest Territories, Yellowknife.
Historically, inferred tonnage for eight of the discovered deposits varied from 2.3 million metric tons averaging 1.5% lithium oxide, to 13.9 million metric tons averaging 1.2% lithium oxide.
"The Yellowknife Pegmatite Province (YPP) is clearly a very strong contender in this global rush for hard-rock lithium, having been described as the largest-known lithium resource in Canada," says Mike Byrne, a resource pathfinder with the NWT government.
Already, NWT has experienced an uptick in claim staking. In 2021, 70 new claims were recorded, largely around the outskirts of the Ekati diamond property in the North Slave Region. In 2022, the number of new claims more than doubled to 175, concentrated in the Slave Geological Province and open lands closer to Yellowknife.
There has also been a flurry of lithium property transactions in the months that followed the December legislation. Vancouver-based Li-FT Power Ltd. acquired 14 lithium pegmatite systems in the YPP. Then, in February of this year, the company announced its intention to acquire additional mineral leases in the area, covering the site of the former Thompson-Lundmark gold mine, which also operated around the time the initial lithium discoveries occurred.
The company hopes its portfolio of pegmatites – called the Yellowknife Lithium Project – can one day become the largest hard-rock lithium resource in North America.
Already, Li-FT is preparing to drill its most promising targets on a property that has seen little to no work for the last 35 years. In addition to its current holdings, the company also recently acquired the Cali project, located in another NWT lithium play – the Little Nahanni Pegmatite Field in the Mackenzie Mountains far to the west near the border of Yukon.
But while focus can be paid to this growing lithium explorer, there are several companies who have staked their claims around this area as well, one especially that comes full circle for NWT's lithium story.
In January, North Arrow Minerals acquired the DeStaffany property, covering 1,843 hectares (4,554 acres) roughly 115 kilometers (71 miles) east of Yellowknife and just 18 kilometers (11 miles) from Canada's first producing rare earth elements mine, Nechalacho, this diamond-producer has gone all in on lithium.
Not ending things with DeStaffany, North Arrow followed up on historical records by GSC mappers and found that its Lac de Gras diamond property – home to the world-class Ekati and Diavik diamond mines – may also hold lithium-bearing pegmatites.
In addition to its newly dubbed LDG lithium project, the company also staked the MacKay lithium property, which lies just south of LDG, as well as the Bathurst Inlet project east in Nunavut.
Exploration at its LDG, MacKay, and DeStaffany projects have already returned sizable quantities of lithium, and most from surficial grab and channel samples – often between 1% and 4% lithium oxide.
Alongside three other properties across North America, Lake Winn Resources Corp. (previously Equitorial Exploration Inc.) is developing its flagship Little Nahanni Pegmatite Group project. LNPG hosts lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite deposits, and sampling of these has returned grades spanning 2% to 3% lithium oxide, which is significantly higher than the industry average grades between 1% and 1.5%.
In addition to the LNPG project, Lake Winn is advancing the Cloud gold project in Manitoba.
Another junior, Gama Explorations Inc., is exploring the Muskox Lithium Pegmatite Project within the YPP.
Located 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of Yellowknife, the company reports its project contains a more than 700-meter-long lithium-bearing pegmatite that is easily accessible via an all-season highway. Recent channel sampling has revealed grades of up to 1.34% lithium oxide – falling within the typical range of industry standard.
Gama also holds the Big Onion copper-molybdenum project in southern British Columbia and the Tyee nickel-copper project in Quebec.
Loyal Lithium Ltd., formerly a gold exploration company, switched its focus to lithium recently and, in April, acquired the Hidden Lake project as part of a joint venture with Patriot Battery Metals Inc.
The project covers a 2,500-hectare (6,178 acres) land package across six contiguous claims, also 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Yellowknife, which holds 14 mapped lithium spodumene-bearing pegmatite outcrops. In addition to Hidden Lake, the company also holds the Triese Lithium Project and Brisk Lithium Project in the prolific James Bay Lithium District of Quebec, Canada.
Finally, ION Energy Ltd. reported signing a definitive agreement to acquire the nearby Bliss Lake lithium pegmatite project roughly 15 kilometers (9 miles) from LI-FT's properties.
With a modern frenzy for lithium taking Northwest Territories by storm, it is a veritable modern rush that may not have the connotations it once did, but the swarm of explorers paints a similar picture of the days of old with thousands of stampeders charging forth into the unknown.
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