The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2024 - January 15, 2025
For nearly two straight seasons, Li-FT powered through and released a maiden resource estimate based on 49,548 meters drilled in 286 holes.
Propelled by the momentum of an ambitious 2023 exploration campaign, 2024 has been a transformative year for Li-FT Power Ltd. as it transitioned the Yellowknife Lithium Project in Northwest Territories, Canada from early-stage exploration to a promising maiden resource estimate.
Acquiring its flagship Yellowknife Lithium Project in January 2023, Li-FT promptly began exploration activities. Situated next to the capital of Northwest Territories, this extensive 141,572-hectare (349,832-acre) land package is divided into two primary clusters: one immediately east of Yellowknife and another about 50 kilometers (31 miles) further east.
The project area encompasses multiple significant pegmatite targets within these two clusters. The Road Accessible Group, closest to Yellowknife, contains notable pegmatites such as Nite, Fi, Ki, and Shorty, while the Further Afield Group features Echo, BIG West, and others that have demonstrated promising lithium mineralization through ongoing exploration.
This underexplored pegmatite province, long overlooked despite its prospective geology, became the focal point for Li-FT's endeavors throughout 2024, as the company aimed to tap into the vast lithium potential beneath the Canadian tundra.
Kicking off the year without pause, Li-FT continued its ambitious exploration into 2024, launching an 18,600-meter winter drilling program across six of its most promising targets.
Focusing on targets such as Echo, Fi Main, and Shorty, Li-FT aimed to systematically expand its understanding of these pegmatite formations. The winter campaign was designed to drill these targets on a 100-meter by 100-meter grid, providing comprehensive coverage to define both the lateral extent and depth of the spodumene mineralization.
By early spring, the company had completed over 10,000 meters of drilling across these primary pegmatites, with preliminary assays revealing encouraging high-grade lithium oxide concentrations, with Echo and Fi Main particularly standing out due to consistent widths of spodumene-bearing material. Highlights included:
• 43 meters averaging 0.85% lithium oxide from a depth of 57 meters in hole YLP-0259 (Echo).
• 16 meters averaging 1.29% Li2O from 16 meters in YLP-0212 (Echo).
• 16 meters averaging 1.31% lithium oxide from 37 meters in YLP-0237 (Fi Main).
• Nine meters averaging 1.28% Li2O from 46 meters in YLP-0229 (Fi Main).
These results informed Li-FT's evolving exploration strategy by identifying primary pegmatite zones for focused drilling, setting the stage for further resource development and prioritization throughout the year.
With the early results validating their approach, Li-FT proceeded to scale its exploration operations through the summer months, targeting additional pegmatites such as Ki, BIG East, and Nite. By mid-year, the company had surpassed 18,400 meters of drilling, systematically assessing its pegmatites across its property.
The continued drilling revealed further high-grade lithium mineralization, reinforcing the substantial resource potential of the Yellowknife Lithium Project. This extensive work also refined the company's geological understanding of these pegmatite complexes, providing a clearer picture of the subsurface mineralization and guiding the next phases of exploration.
Assay results from the summer drilling at Ki, BIG East, and Nite highlighted promising lithium oxide concentrations across these pegmatites. Highlights include:
• 23 meters averaging 1.25% lithium oxide from a depth of 61 meters in hole YLP-0165 (Ki).
• 13 meters averaging 1.11% Li2O from 47 meters in YLP-0184 (Ki).
• 10 meters averaging 0.91% Li2O from 50 meters in YLP-0211 (BIG East).
• Five meters averaging 0.77% Li2O from 64 meters in YLP-0173 (BIG East).
• 11 meters averaging 1.52% lithium oxide from a depth of 81 meters in hole YLP-0177 (Nite).
• Nine meters averaging 1.1% Li2O from 172 meters in YLP-0157 (Nite).
Alongside its intensive drilling campaigns, Li-FT also engaged in systematic surface exploration, which included geological mapping, sampling, and geophysical surveys to complement the subsurface data gathered from drilling.
This comprehensive approach enabled the company to identify new high-priority targets within the Yellowknife Lithium Project, further expanding its focus beyond the initially identified pegmatites. Such detailed surface investigations were instrumental in refining the overall exploration model, providing critical insights into the geological structures underlying the pegmatite dykes.
The integration of these surface exploration techniques with ongoing drilling led to several notable discoveries. By the latter half of 2024, Li-FT had expanded its knowledge of two pegmatites, particularly Echo and Fi Main, which continued to return consistent high-grade intercepts.
Additionally, new spodumene-bearing dykes were identified at Nite and BIG West, further emphasizing the potential of these areas to contribute significant tonnage to future resource estimates.
These developments highlighted Li-FT's use of an integrated exploration approach, incorporating traditional drilling alongside modern geophysical and geochemical methods to assess the project's potential comprehensively.
Near the end of the summer, the final results from the winter program finally rolled in, further strengthening the resource potential at the Yellowknife Lithium Project. Highlights included:
• 25 meters averaging 1.21% lithium oxide from a depth of 52 meters in hole YLP-0284 (Shorty).
• 13 meters averaging 1.05% Li2O from 56 meters in YLP-0272 (Ki).
Li-FT's extensive drilling and exploration efforts had culminated in a comprehensive understanding of the primary pegmatite formations, allowing the company to shift its focus toward preparing a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Yellowknife Lithium Project using the substantial data collected throughout 2024.
While significant progress was being made at the Yellowknife Lithium Project, Li-FT was also actively expanding its critical minerals footprint elsewhere in the Northwest Territories.
In September, the company quadrupled the size of its Cali project, which initially spanned approximately 3,200 hectares (7,907 acres), by staking an additional 9,681 hectares (23,927 acres) of spodumene-rich claims.
Situated roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of the historical Cantung tungsten mine, the Cali project features spodumene-bearing pegmatites within a region largely unexplored until recent years. This expanded land position provided Li-FT the opportunity to further its exploration efforts and investigate the spodumene corridors identified during its 2023 field season.
"Acquiring new areas through staking is the most cost-effective way to increase a company's land position," said Li-FT Power CEO Francis MacDonald. "The newly staked ground has outcropping spodumene deposits that are continuations of our existing deposits and increases the overall size potential of the Cali project."
During the latter part of 2024, Li-FT conducted systematic surface exploration at Cali to establish baseline geological data across its newly expanded land position. This work, which included geological mapping, soil geochemistry surveys, and targeted sampling, provided a foundational understanding of the spodumene-bearing pegmatites within the region.
These findings were instrumental in identifying high-priority areas for future drilling, thus enhancing the exploration potential of the Cali project.
With extensive drilling and data collection throughout the year, Li-FT was well-positioned to prepare for perhaps its largest move yet, the announcement of a maiden resource estimate for the Yellowknife Lithium Project.
Reported in early October, the estimate marked a significant milestone for the company, providing a quantitative insight into the resource potential identified across its many pegmatite formations.
"The announcement of Li-FT's first NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the Yellowknife Lithium Project marks a significant milestone for both the company and the Northwest Territories," said MacDonald.
Derived from eight of its 13 pegmatites, and incorporating drilling data from over 49,548 meters across 286 holes in roughly 10 months, the maiden NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate outlined 50.4 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1% lithium oxide (Li2O) – positioning the project among the top spodumene projects in Canada and the Western Hemisphere.
Three of the higher-grade pegmatites, Big East, Fi Main, and Fi Southwest, contributed a total of 30.27 million metric tons at an average grade of 1.05% lithium oxide. While the pegmatites at Big West, Nite, Shorty, Ki, and Echo added another 20.12 million metric tons, averaging 0.94% lithium oxide.
"With an estimated 50.4 million tonnes at a grade of 1.00% Li2O based only on the initial drilling program, the Yellowknife Lithium Project already ranks among the top 10 largest spodumene projects in the Americas," MacDonald added.
Beyond the significant milestone of the maiden resource estimate, for Li-FT, there remain five undrilled spodumene-bearing dykes within the project that were not included in this estimate. These undrilled pegmatites are expected to increase the resource base significantly through future exploration, indicating that the Yellowknife Lithium Project's potential remains far from fully realized.
Looking ahead, Li-FT has already initiated a preliminary economic assessment (PEA), expected to be completed by mid-2025.
This PEA will evaluate the economic viability of the Yellowknife Lithium Project, taking into account the substantial maiden resource estimate and the ongoing results from metallurgical testing.
Initial testing has demonstrated an average lithium recovery rate of 79%, producing a high-quality spodumene concentrate averaging 5.83% Li2O-further supporting the project's potential economic feasibility.
"The majority of the deposits included in the MRE have not yet been constrained by the drilling completed to-date and have excellent potential to significantly grow through further drill programs," MacDonald commented. "This resource will be pivotal in advancing the PEA we are targeting for Q2 2025."
With the announcement of its maiden mineral resource estimate, Li-FT Power Ltd. has firmly established itself as a major contender in the North American lithium landscape. The significant strides made in 2024 lay the foundation for further exploration, expansion, and development as the company looks toward 2025 with ambitious plans for growth.
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