The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - March 15, 2024
Li-FT Power Ltd. March 13 announced results for eight drill holes completed at its Near Field Group of lithium pegmatites on the company's Yellowknife Lithium project. With the rollover from its 2023 drilling, right into this year's results, the company has kept up momentum toward delineating the extent of mineralization held within the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province of Northwest Territories.
Acquiring its various properties in the underexplored Yellowknife Pegmatite Province (YPP) in January 2023, Li-FT began its first season with a 34,238-meter drill program just a few months after its inception.
The company's 141,572-hectare (349,832 acres) land package covers some of the most prospective targets found within the YPP; the Yellowknife Lithium project spreads at least 14 pegmatites on mineral leases practically a stone's throw from NWT's capital, Yellowknife.
Consisting of 11 properties divided into two groups – five in a road-accessible area immediately east of Yellowknife and a cluster of six about 50 kilometers (30 miles) further east – Li-FT has been rolling out assays from these targets consistently for the past few months.
Kicking off its 2024 winter campaign before the final assays of 2023 could roll in, Li-FT targeted a new 18,400-meter drill program that continues to return elevated lithium oxide from surface downwards, sometimes several hundreds of meters.
Given the regularity of Li-FT's releases, this week is a combination of the last two weeks, including eight results from 1,116 meters drilled at the Fi Southwest, BIG West, Nite and Echo pegmatites announced March 6, and eight this week from 1,428 meters drilled from the Echo, Fi Main, Fi Southwest, and Fi Boye pegmatites.
Highlights from last week's results include:
• 19 meters averaging 1.31% lithium oxide from a depth of 50 meters in hole YLP-0200 (Fi Southwest).
• 13 meters averaging 1.24% Li2O from 16 meters in YLP-0203 (Echo).
• Eight meters averaging 1.39% Li2O from 24 meters in YLP-0205 (Echo).
• Three meters averaging 1.13% Li2O from 190 meters in YLP-0198 (Nite).
• One meter averaging 1.02% Li2O from 56 meters in YLP-0188 (BIG West).
"The Fi Southwest continues to return robust intercepts of mineralization with hole 200 drilling 19 meters at 1.31% Li2O," said Li-FT Senior VP of Geology Dave Smithson. "Drilling on the Fi Southwest has defined 900 meters of shallow mineralization to date, so we are very excited to continue to step-out from these numbers to depth."
"Drilling at the northwest end of Echo also continued to return grade and width this week with hole 203 returning an impressive 13 meters of 1.2% Li2O ..."
Highlights from the most recent results include:
• 16 meters averaging 1.26% lithium oxide from a depth of 15 meters in YLP-0216 (Echo).
• 14 meters averaging 1.2% Li2O from 37 meters in YLP-0213 (Echo).
• 10 meters averaging 0.95% Li2O from 37 meters in YLP-0208 (Echo).
• 10 meters averaging 0.95% Li2O from 27 meters in YLP-0207 (Echo).
• 10 meters averaging 0.91% Li2O from 50 meters in YLP-0211 (Echo).
"The Echo pegmatite is living up to initial expectations," said Li-FT CEO Francis MacDonald. "We are seeing a complex stacked set of spodumene pegmatites that are shallow-dipping which is very favorable for open pit mining. Drill hole YLP-0216 intersected three branches of pegmatite that total 36 meters within one drill hole."
Results from Fi Boye, Fi Southwest, and Fi Main returned no significant results.
Considering the speed of its drilling, combined with the turnaround for assays, perhaps Li-FT's winter program will be just that, and more drilling will be added in 2024 to its already sizeable 18,400 meters planned.
Nevertheless, a cursory review of the company's assays from 2023 shows that it has most likely reported all 198 holes drilled from last year. Without missing a beat, the company has rolled right into its next program and will continue to report assays as they are received.
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