Great Thunder drills Chubb

Great Thunder Gold (TSXV: GTG) has announced drill results from its wholly owned Chubb lithium project located 32 km north of Val-d’Or, Que., as it tries to advance the project while managing the challenges of being a small junior mining company.

“We’re looking to try to expand with tight budgets and spending money wisely on the ground,” Great Thunder president and CEO Kevin Whelan tells The Northern Miner during a telephone interview. “Because you can spend it unwisely a lot in this business.”

The latest round of drilling consisted of 306 metres spread over three holes. Whelan says the results left him optimistic.

Highlights include 5.3 metres at 1.3% lithium oxide, 2.1 metres at 1.2% lithium oxide and 3.6 metres at 0.9% lithium oxide.

Whelan points to growing demands from environmental groups and skepticism around the junior mining space as hurdles to overcome.

“It’s amazing the cynicism,” Whelan says. “And so I’m challenged … and understand that we need to work better together.”

Great Thunder staff at work on the Chubb lithium project. Credit: Great Thunder.

Great Thunder started as a gold company with a focus on the Valentine project. It has since expanded to hold lithium properties as well, given what Whelan calls the “obvious opportunity” in the lithium space. He says Great Thunder wouldn’t leave the gold space unless one of its lithium projects took off.

“Lithium is extremely important to today’s world,” he says. “I don’t see that drying up. There have been some significant statements made by individuals like Elon Musk, who want to produce lithium in North America. There’s sort of a move towards maintaining that edge because of the production in other parts of the world that are unpredictable jurisdictions.”

Great Thunder completed its option agreement to acquire the Chubb property from Globex Mining Enterprises (TSX: GMX) in January 2017. The deal included the nearby Bouvier lithium property. The properties are subject to a 2% gross metal royalty and a 1% net smelter return royalty (NSR). Great Thunder can buy back the NSR for $200,000. After the purchase, Great Thunder decided to segregate the properties.

Whelan says he was attracted to the project because of its history.

Exploration on the Chubb property began in the 1950s. The best historical drill intersections were obtained in 1994 by Abitibi Lithium, producing intervals of 3.7 metres at 1.78% lithium oxide, 8 metres at 1.00% lithium oxide and 2.4 metres at 1.25% lithium oxide. In 2010, Mineral Hill Industries (TSXV: MHI) carried out its own magnetic and geophysical surveys.

Chubb is situated within the Preissac-Lacorne plutonic complex of the Abitibi greenstone belt. The plutonic complex generated the Quebec Lithium project for which Canada Lithium reported proven and probable reserves of 17.1 million tonnes grading 0.94% lithium oxide, according to a feasibility study update by Canada Lithium from October 2012.

Drill core pulled from the Chubb lithium project. Credit: Great Thunder Gold.

RB Energy took over the project in 2014 through a merger with Canada Lithium, but by October of the same year it had shut the project down. The company ran into processing problems, and when it announced it would need to raise $78 million to reach commercial production, its stock price crashed.

“Chubb is only 15 km from the Quebec Lithium project,” Whelan says. “And that’s being regenerated by a Chinese group saying they’re going to raise a ridiculous amount of money. They get that up and running and we’re not far away, so there’s no doubt that we have something on our property we need to quantify.”

Chubb consists of 35 contiguous recorded mineral claims with a total area of 15 square kilometres. The property’s geology consists mostly of quartz monzodiorite and metasomatized quartz diorite, with spodumene-rich granitic pegmatite dikes intruding within the plutonic rocks. It does not yet have a resource estimate.

A drill crew at Great Thunder Gold’s Chubb lithium property in Quebec. Credit: Great Thunder Gold.

“We drilled on Dec. 10, so we’re all just kind of taking a deep breath right now and my geologist is working on a report for that, and also for the property we have at Urban Thunder,” Whelan says.

Urban Thunder is a gold project in the Windfall Lake area of Quebec. It encompasses 20 mineral claims across 11 square kilometres.

“So we’ll file that and get the properties in good standing for a longer period of time, and I’m focused on just maintaining the 100% integrity of our projects,” Whelan says.

Great Thunder’s other properties include the Valentine Mountain gold project in B.C., the Nemaska Lake lithium property in northern Quebec, the Great Dane gold project next to Osisko Mining’s (TSX: OSK) Black Dog gold project in the Urban Barry gold camp and the Bouvier property.

“My bottom line is that I want to grow Great Thunder into a junior that’s better than one that people are cynical about.”

Shares of Great Thunder are valued at 4¢ apiece, with a 52-week range of 2¢ to 10¢.

The company has a $2-million market capitalization.