Patriot Battery Metals reveals its 2022 exploration plans for the Corvette-FCI Property situated in the James Bay Region of Quebec, Canada.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com/Parilov
For the exploration, the Company will concentrate on delineation of the spodumene pegmatite occurrences on the Property, and will precisely target the CV5-6 spodumene pegmatite where the first drill hole by the Company on the Property yielded 0.93% Li2O and 114 ppm Ta2O5 over 146.8 m (CF21-001).
The core sample assays for the other three drill holes that targeted the CV5-6 pegmatite during the 2021 program are awaited from the lab.
The Company is at present scheduling a 15,000 to 20,000 m two-drill rig campaign to vigorously follow up on the success of the 2021 drill program. The 2022 drill campaign will be finished in two phases – winter/spring and summer/fall.
The winter/spring phase is projected to begin at around the end of February and will cover the areas northeast and along strike of CV5-6, underneath a shallow lake, and spread to the CV1-2 pegmatites outcropping on the opposite shore.
The key aim will be to examine for mineralized pegmatite along strike, potentially linking CV5-6 with CV1-2, as well as examining the mineralization at depth. The summer/fall phase will concentrate on continued land-based infill and step-out drilling spanning CV5-6 and CV1-2.
The Company also plans to drill test a number of other spodumene pegmatite occurrences on the Property as well as conclude follow-up drilling along the Maven Copper-Gold-Silver Trend. The Company finished 1,177 m over 10 drill holes at the Maven Trend in 2021 and is awaiting the analysis of the core sample for all the holes.
Besides the drill campaign, the Company plans to finish LiDAR and/or satellite imagery acquisition over the key sections of the Property, as well as geological mapping to help in regional exploration and geological modeling. Regional prospecting over a newly acquired claim block, situated contiguous to the eastern claims of the Property, will also be finished.
In late 2021, the Company finished strategic financing, gaining $11M in flow-through to fund major work programs on the ground at Corvette-FCI. The Company has been funded in flow-through dollars as well as hard dollars and is currently in a robust position to concentrate on vigorously progressing this new lithium pegmatite finding with an overarching goal of building a preliminary mineral resource estimate by the end of 2022.
As stated earlier, core sample assays are yet to be received for the other drill holes of the 2021 program (CF21-002 through CF21-014). Analytical laboratories in the industry continue to be limited, which has greatly affected turnaround times on the order of weeks to months. The Company is closely following up with the lab and supposes final geochemical results to be delivered for the next batch of holes over the following 4 to 6 weeks.
Qualified Person
Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P. Geo., Vice President of Exploration for Patriot Battery Metals and Qualified Person as stipulated by National Instrument 43-101, directed the preparation of the technical data in this article.