Base and battery metals Snapshot: Eight companies targeting critical minerals

The growing demand for clean energy technologies is driving exploration and development of critical mineral deposits around the world. Here’s a look at eight companies on the hunt for everything from cobalt and copper to graphite, lithium and nickel.

ACME Lithium

ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME; US-OTC: ACLHF) is focused on battery metal projects and its flagship asset is the Clayton Valley lithium project in Esmeralda County, Nev., 145 km northwest of Las Vegas. ACME Lithium has the option to earn 100% of 122 claims of the 9.9-sq.-km project, which sits contiguous to the northwest of Albemarle’s (NYSE: ALB) Silver Peak lithium mine, and borders Pure Energy Metals’ Clayton Valley lithium brine project, a joint-venture with Schlumberger Technology Corp.

ACME kicked off its second-phase drill program at Clayton Valley on Jan. 31, following sample results in August from drill hole DH-1, which was drilled to a depth of 427 metres below surface. Lithium was detected from all the samples at concentrations ranging between 38 and 130 mg per litre. The highest concentrations were from samples collected in the deep gravels at 412-427 metres below surface. The company noted at the time that the results “strongly indicate existence of a bicarbonate rich groundwater quality affinity which is typical in the Clayton Valley lithium brine aquifers.”

The Vancouver-based company is also exploring at its 12-sq.-km Fish Lake Valley lithium project, also in Esmeralda County, about 274 km from Las Vegas and 306 km from Tesla’s Gigafactory.

On Jan. 19, the company reported the highest values of lithium samples to date with up to 1,325 parts per million (ppm) lithium. It is also continuing with geochemistry sampling at the project. Fish Lake Valley is directly west and abuts Ioneer Ltd’s (NASDAQ: IONR; ASX: INR) Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project area.

In addition to its Nevada targets, ACME has lithium projects in Canada — Shatford, Birse and Cat-Euclid Lakes in the pegmatite field of the Bird River Greenstone Belt in southeastern Manitoba, and Bailey Lake in northeastern Saskatchewan. It started drilling a 5,000-metre program at Shatford Lake on Jan. 11.

On Jan. 26, it signed an agreement with Israel-based Asterra, a satellite technology company to use its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data analytics, algorithms and artificial intelligence to find lithium targets.

ACME Lithium has a market capitalization of $30.4 million.

Avalon Advanced Materials

Avalon Advanced Materials (TSX: AVL; US-OTC: AVLNF) is focused on its 100%-owned Separation Rapids project, 70 km north of Kenora, Ont. The 24.3-sq.-km property hosts a lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite deposit, enriched with petalite.

Petalite, a high-purity lithium aluminum silicate mineral, can be used as an industrial mineral for high-strength glass and as a high purity feed to make battery grade lithium hydroxide or carbonate.

On Sept. 22, the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with LG Energy Solution, a Korean lithium battery manufacturer that is planning to set up a facility in southern Ontario and will need a domestic supply of lithium hydroxide. Avalon will provide LG Energy with at least 50% of its planned initial lithium hydroxide production over an initial five-year period from the refinery it plans to build in Thunder Bay.

The MOU was followed on Sept. 27 with an off-take agreement for petalite concentrate from an undisclosed major international glass ceramic manufacturer.

In March 2021 the Toronto-based company collected a 5,000-tonne bulk sample from the project. The bulk sample will be processed to produce trial quantities of a petalite product for potential end-users, it says.

Last April, Avalon signed a binding letter of intent with India’s Essar Group, which will become a strategic partner and co-developer of the Thunder Bay refinery. Essar will provide funding to support final feasibility studies and site preparation work at Separation Rapids and for the refinery.

According to the latest available presentation on its website (June 2022), Avalon hopes to start lithium battery materials production in 2025-2026. In the meantime, while the refinery is built, it aims to start small-scale commercial operations with sales of petalite and rubidium, cesium and tantalum mineral byproducts.

A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed in 2018 outlined a 20-year mine life producing 71,500 tonnes per year of petalite and 11,800 tonnes per year of lepidolite. A feldspar circuit would be added in year six.

The company’s other projects include Nechalacho (rare earth elements, beryllium, lithium, niobium, tantalum, zirconium) in the Northwest Territories; East Kemptville, 270 km west of Halifax, N.S. (tin-indium-copper-zinc), and two in Ontario, including Warren Township (anorthosite), and Lilypad (cesium-tantalum-lithium).

Avalon Advanced Materials has a market cap of $60.1 million.

Doré Copper Mining

Doré Copper Mining (TSXV: DCMC; US-OTC: DRCMF) has a large land package that includes 13 former producing mines, deposits, and resource target areas within a 60-km radius of its Copper Rand mill in northern Quebec, about 10 km from the town of Chibougamau.

The Toronto-based company is focusing on a hub-and-spoke development strategy with its Copper Rand mill serving as the hub, and it plans to release a feasibility study for it next year.

In May 2022 Doré completed a PEA for the restart of mining operations at Chibougamau with its flagship Corner Bay copper-gold deposit as the main underground mine. Doré’s Devlin copper deposit and the former Joe Mann gold mine would also feed the Copper Rand mill.

 The PEA outlined an underground operation producing 492 million lb. of copper and 142,000 oz. of gold over a 10.5-year mine life. The operation would produce an average annual output of 53 million lb. copper-equivalent in concentrate over the life of the mine at all-in sustaining costs of U$2.24 per lb. copper-equivalent. 

Based on US$3.75 per lb. copper and US$1,820 per oz. gold and using an 8% discount rate, the after-tax net present value came to $193 million and the internal rate of return to 22.1%. Initial capital costs, which would be paid back in 5.5 years, are estimated at $180.6 million.

Corner Bay has indicated resources of 2.7 million tonnes grading 2.66% copper and 0.26 gram gold per tonne for 157 million lb. contained copper and 22,000 oz. of gold. Inferred resources total 5.9 million tonnes at 3.43% copper and 0.27 gram gold for 443 million lb. copper and 51,000 oz. gold.

In November, Doré released the final results from its 2022 drill program, with highlights of 5.1 metres of 5.68% copper, 0.32 gram gold, 18.3 grams silver and 510 ppm molybdenum starting from 1,068 metres in drillhole CB-22-86; 2.6 metres of 3.69% copper, 0.07 gram gold, 10.3 grams silver and 414 ppm molybdenum from 1,063 metres in CB-22-83; and 2.1 metres of 4.73% copper, 0.23 gram gold, 45.5 grams silver and 401 ppm molybdenum starting from 853 metres in CB-22-96.

Doré Copper Mining has a market cap of $23.1 million.

Lithium Chile

Calgary-based Lithium Chile (TSXV: LITH; US-OTC: LTMCF) has a lithium property portfolio consisting of 1,119.8 sq. km covering sections of 11 salars and 1 laguna complex in Chile and 208 sq. km in Argentina. Its flagship lithium project, Salar de Arizaro, in northern Argentina’s Salta province, has total indicated resources of 1.3 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at a grade of 284 mg per litre and inferred resources of 1.2 million tonnes at a grade of 310 mg per litre.

In February, Lithium Chile announced it had contracted Ausenco Engineering to complete a preliminary economic assessment for the project. A Phase 2 development program at Salar de Arizaro is underway, and the results will be included in an updated resource estimate during the first quarter of 2023. The program started in June and consists of four exploration holes and three production wells. Samples taken between 360 metres and 450 metres from the diamond drill hole on Argento 2 returned assays as high as 350 mg per litre. The company completed the first two production wells by Oct. 20 and started drilling the third production well (Argento-3) in January.

At the end of December, Lithium Chile submitted a proposal for a joint venture with Remsa, a state-owned mining company in Salta. The proposal envisions developing an additional 50 sq. km on Salar de Arizaro. The two companies signed an MOU for a joint venture in June 2022, and Lithium Chile says the JV should be completed by the end of this year’s first quarter.

Notable projects in Chile include Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Llamara. Near-surface brine samples from the 113-sq.-km Coipassa Salar assayed up to 1,410 mg per litre, and in mid-January, the company added 217 sq. km to Salar de Llamara, bringing it to 355 sq. km and making it the company’s largest project in the country.

In addition to lithium assets, the company has gold, silver and copper properties in Chile.

In August, China’s Chengxin Lithium Group invested over US$34 million into Lithium Chile. But in November, Canada’s federal government ordered Chengxin to divest its stake in the junior for national security reasons.

Lithium Chile has a market cap of $153.4 million.

Lithium Ionic

Lithium Ionic (TSX: LTH.V; US-OTC: LTHCF), which began trading on the Toronto Venture Exchange in May 2022, is focused on its 36-sq.-km Itinga project in the Aracuai lithium province of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. The project is about 25 km east of the town of Aracuai and 594 km northeast of the city of Belo Horizonte.

The company is operating six drill rigs in a 30,000-metre drill program and is targeting near-surface mineralization associated with a 1.3-km lithium soil anomaly at its Bandeira target, about 800 metres south of the CBL lithium mine. The privately owned mine has been in production since 1993 and produces lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.

Lithium Ionic plans to release its first resource estimate on Itinga early this year.

Highlights from drilling at its Bandeira target released on Jan. 24 included 1.59% lithium oxide (Li₂O) over 9.6 metres in drillhole ITDD-22-039; and 1.27% (Li₂O) over 10 metres in ITDD-22-023. Other notable intercepts included 1.95% (Li₂O) over 1.6 metres in ITDD-22-032 and 1.61% (Li₂O) over 4.7 metres in ITDD-22-038.

The Toronto-based company noted that it has identified a mineralized trend of over 1 km at Bandeira with at least six different spodumene-bearing pegmatite bodies that remain open in all directions.

In September, Lithium Ionic completed the acquisition of the Galvani claims, 3 km northwest of the CBL mine and 2 km west of Sigma Lithium’s (TSXV: SGML; NASDAQ: SGML) Xuxa deposit. Drill results from Galvani include 1.98% (Li₂O) over 25.6 metres in hole ARDD-22-030; 1.53% (Li₂O) over 46.2 metres in ARDD-22-021; and 1.71% (Li₂O) over 22 metres in ARDD-22-05.

Metallurgical results have demonstrated lithium recoveries of 77.99% at Bandeira and 82.52% for Galvani. The results were achieved with heavy liquid separation (HLS) gravity separation tests, producing a lithium concentrate of 6%.

In January, Lithium Ionic signed an agreement to earn up to a 100% interest in Vale Litio, which holds three claims covering 31.4 sq. km. One of the three claims is adjacent to Galvani and has spodumene-rich pegmatites identified in old workings and outcrops.

That deal followed an agreement in December to acquire from Mineracao Borges Ltd. three claims spanning about 15.3 sq. km along trend of the CBL mine and Sigma Lithium’s Xuxa and Barreiro deposits.

Its latest acquisition in Minas Gerais on Feb. 13 — the 10-sq.-km Clesio claims — brings its total land position to about 77 sq. km, a six-fold increase from the 13 sq. km it launched with in May 2022.

Lithium Ionic has a $337.6 market cap.

NGEx Minerals

NGEx Minerals (TSXV: NGEX) owns copper and gold projects in Chile and Argentina and is part of the Lundin Group of companies. Its Los Helados copper-gold porphyry deposit in Chile is about 135 km southeast of Copiapo in the Vicuna district. NGEx owns 69% and is the operator, and Nippon Caserones Resources owns the remaining 31%. (Nippon owns the Caserones open pit copper mine, 15 km north of Los Helados.)

The Vancouver-headquartered firm discovered the deposit in 2008 and according to its most recent resource estimate in 2019, Los Helados contains indicated resources of 2.1 billion tonnes grading 0.38% copper, 0.15 gram gold per tonne and 1.37 grams silver for 17.6 billion lb. copper, 10.1 million oz. gold and 92.5 million oz. silver. Inferred resources add 827 million tonnes averaging 0.32% copper, 0.1 gram gold, and 1.32 grams silver for 5.8 billion lb. copper, 2.7 million oz. gold, and 35.1 million oz. silver.

In January, NGEx released assays from Los Helados including 122.1 metres grading 0.94% copper, 0.14 gram gold, and 2.7 grams silver (1.05% copper-equivalent) starting from 884 metres downhole in drill hole LHDH083. Hole LHDH079 included a 256.9-metre interval of 0.54% copper, 0.16 gram gold, and 2.6 grams silver (0.65% copper-equivalent) from 676 metres.

In Argentina NGEx holds the Potro Cliffs and Valle Ancho projects. It kicked off its first drill program at Potro Cliffs on Jan. 9. The project, also in the Vicuna district, is in Argentina’s San Juan province, about 10 km south of Los Helados and 7 km north of Filo Mining’s (TSX: FIL; US-OTC: FLMMF) Filo del Sol project. (Filo Mining is also part of the Lundin Goup.) Two holes will be drilled initially, one from the plateau at the top of the cliff and another collared in the valley about 700 metres below.

Valle Ancho is in Argentina’s Catamarca province and covers about 1,000 sq. km of ground. Last May, NGEx reported drill results from the final six holes of its eight-hole (3,060 metre) program. Highlights included 596.5 metres grading 0.23% copper, 0.37 gram gold and 1.4 grams silver (0.5% copper-equivalent) from 4 metres in drill hole VADH003; and 271 metres of 0.12% copper, 0.26 gram gold and 1.5 grams silver (0.32% copper-equivalent) from surface in VADH005.

NGEx Minerals has a market cap of $548.8 million.

NextSource Materials

Toronto-based NextSource Materials (TSX: NEXT; US-OTC: NSRCF) reached a big milestone at its 100%-owned Molo large-flake graphite project in southern Madagascar, in February, reporting it had finished construction of the processing plant and mining camp.  The company expects to start commercial production following plant commissioning and a three-month ramp-up period. Phase 1 of the Molo open pit mine is fully funded and when commissioned, it will become one of the few graphite mines outside of China. Molo is located 220 km from the deep-water Port of Ehoala at Fort Dauphin.

An updated feasibility study released in September 2019 outlined a phased development approach. In the first phase, 17,000 tonnes of flake graphite will be produced annually from 240,000 tonnes of processed ore per year over the first two years. A second phase beginning in year three will produce 45,000 tonnes per year. The study outlined a mine life of 30 years and initial capex for phase one of US$21 million and phase two of US$39.1 million.

The company has a 10-year offtake agreement for 20,000 tonnes per year of SuperFlake graphite with an undisclosed Japanese trading company, which NextSource describes as a major supplier of flake graphite to Japan’s largest battery processor and manufacturer of graphite anode material in lithium-ion batteries.

NextSource also has signed an offtake agreement with Thyssenkrupp Materials Trading of Germany to supply up to 35,000 tonnes per year of its branded SuperFlake graphite products.

The company has a binding agreement to build and operate a battery anode facility to produce spheronized and purified graphite (SPG) used in lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles. The agreement is a partnership with two companies that process and supply SPG to Japanese anode and battery makers and are part of Tesla’s supply chain.

Former Xstrata boss Sir Mick Davis is the company’s chairman. His investment vehicle, Vision Blue Resources, endorsed the Molo project in February 2021 with a US$29.5 million investment.

Last year, CrossBoundary Energy’s Madagascar subsidiary started building a solar thermal hybrid energy power plant that will power Phase 1. The plant will provide up to 33% of the mine’s total Phase 1 electricity needs from solar energy, with the remainder coming from thermal generators.

Early last year, the company completed a PEA for a Phase 2 expansion consisting of a standalone processing plant with a production capacity of 150,000 tonnes per year of flake graphite concentrate over a 26-year mine life. The plant could be built for an initial capex of US$155.8 million, including a US$32-million contingency.

The Molo deposit contains 100.4 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 6.3% carbon (graphite) for 6.3 million tonnes of graphite. Inferred resources come to 40.9 million tonnes grading 5.8% carbon for 2.4 million tonnes of graphite.

NextSource Materials has a market cap of $322.7 million.

Premium Nickel Resources

Toronto-based Premium Nickel Resources (TSXV: PNRL; US-OTC: PNRLF) has nickel-cobalt-copper and PGM projects in Botswana, Greenland and Canada.

In Botswana, it has two projects situated about 75 km apart — the past-producing Selebi nickel-copper-cobalt mine, about 410 km northeast of the capital Gaborone, and the past-producing Selkirk nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group elements mine, to the north of Selebi.

The Selebi mine had two shafts (Selebi and Selebi North) situated about 6 km apart. Mining started in 1980 and ended in 2016, when the operations were placed on care and maintenance due to a failure in the offsite Phikwe processing facility.

Premium Nickel acquired the Selebi project in January 2022 and is exploring what potential remains in the Selebi North and Selebi Main deposits. It completed an initial drill program of 15,074 metres in January and said the results, along with borehole electromagnetics, “have provided significant evidence that Selebi and Selebi North deposits are part of one large mineralized system” and that the mineralization “is present in at least two mineralized amphibolite hosted horizons.”

Last month, the company reported additional assay results from Selebi, with highlights of 16.7 metres grading 1% nickel, 2.05% copper and 0.04% cobalt (1.72% nickel-equivalent) starting from 1,203 metres in drill hole SMD-22-009a, including a 9.4-metre interval of 1.34% nickel, 3.01% copper, and 0.05% cobalt (2.39% copper-equivalent).

At Selkirk, Premium Nickel is evaluating the past-producer as an independent and modern operation with processing and tailings management facilities. According to the company, Anglo American high-graded Selkirk’s nickel-copper veins and produced about 1 million tonnes grading 2.6% nickel and 1.5% copper between 1989 and 2002. An NI 43-101 compliant resource in 2007 outlined 6 million indicated tonnes grading 1.06% nickel and 0.36% copper.

Assays from historic core samples released in August included 139.5 metres grading 0.46% nickel, 0.54% copper, 0.03% cobalt, 0.21 gram platinum per tonne, 0.89 gram palladium and 0.09 gram gold.

In Greenland, the company’s Maniitsoq project, about 125 km north of the capital Nuuk, is centred on high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt-precious metal sulphide occurrences associated with the Greenland Norite Belt.

Premium Nickel also owns the Post Creek and Halcyon projects, 35 km northeast of Sudbury, Ont. The properties are about 2 km northeast of KGHM International’s past-producing Podolsky mine.

In late February, Premium Nickel closed a brokered private placement of 4.4 million common shares at  $1.75 per share for gross proceeds of up to $7.8 million. It had targeted raising up to $27 million in the best-efforts financing. The funds will be used to advance Selebi and Selkirk. Premium Nickel Resources has a market cap of $205.9 million.