Harfang Exploration reports that it is continuing to expand its portfolio of lithium projects in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay area of Québec, which is known to be one of the most excellent mining regions in the world.
Location of the Lemare, Ross and Conviac properties staked by Harfang (red blocks) with respect to other assets of the Company, major limits between geological subprovinces, and lithium deposits and major discoveries in Eeyou Istchee James Bay. Inset: The gray rectangle shows the limit of the main figure. Image Credit: Harfang Exploration Inc.
The new assets are spread all over the region and were obtained by map designation, reinforcing the robust Critical and Strategic Minerals (“CSM”) assets of the Company. Harfang is one of the largest landholders in the area, hosting 3,323 claims (172,014 hectares), and is well situated for the discovery of both lithium and gold deposits.
This new venture is a direct outcome of targeting by the Harfang exploration team, one of the most erudite in the area. Targeting comprised the statistical processing of over 13,400 analyses of lake bottom sediments dug out from SIGEOM, Québec’s world-class governmental digital database.
This geochemical database was integrated with a geological evaluation of the environment advantageous for the occurrences of lithium and rare element-bearing S-type pegmatites and related granites.
Significantly, this statistical processing by Harfang, which was used as a path for the acquisitions of these claims, also detected lithium anomalies in lake bottom sediments across all established lithium deposits and discoveries. Targeting activities are continuing.
New Claim Acquisitions
The latest assets include the Ross, Lemare, Sakami, and Conviac properties, and the inclusion of new claims to the La Passe Property. No proof of methodical historical exploration is seen on any of the recently reported extra acquisitions.
The Lemare Property contains 220 claims situated around 20 km southeast of the Whabouchi lithium deposit. The Property comprises numerous strong lake bottom sediment lithium anomalies of which four are ≥99.5th percentile of the whole SIGEOM database.
Some of these assessed anomalies form a tight mass in an area filled mostly by pegmatites and granites of the Opatica Subprovince.
The Ross Property contains 100 claims situated along the northern side of the Lac-des-Montagnes volcano-sedimentary belt in a geological location akin to that of the Whabouchi lithium deposit. The staked area is proven to host copious pegmatite dykes.
The Conviac Property contains 140 contiguous claims situated 70 km southeast of the Eleonore gold mine and was staked to encompass the third-strongest lithium anomaly assessed from the database. It extends about 15 km along the high-volume contact between the Opinaca and La Grande subprovinces.
The Conviac Property also has outstanding potential for the discovery of gold mineralization comparable to the Eleonore mine and Cheechoo deposit.
The Sakami Property comprises a total of 204 claims organized into two separate blocks 8 km away from each other. It is situated close to the northern border of the Opinaca Subprovince. Regional mapping has verified the existence of pegmatites and granites of the Vieux Comptoir Granitic Suite and paragneiss.
Furthermore, 62 claims grouped into two separate blocks were incorporated into the La Passe Property. The new claims encompass a geological setting akin to that of the original property, which comprises a series of pegmatite dykes related to the Vieux Comptoir Granitic Suite. These dykes encroached into metasedimentary rocks and paragneiss.
Harfang is certain that the whole La Passe Property, situated close to the limit between the La Grande and Opinaca subprovinces, signifies an extremely potential geological location for the unearthing of lithium-bearing pegmatites and gold mineralization.
Harfang is presently preparing for its exploration program on its gold and lithium projects for 2023.
The Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Québec is rapidly emerging as a North American lithium province comparable to some of the largest districts globally based on the occurrence of several deposits and recent discoveries. It will further benefit from the intensity of exploration this year and I believe there is a high probability that additional discoveries will be made throughout the region given the early stage of exploration in most areas.
Ian Campbell, President and CEO, Harfang Exploration Inc.
“Importantly for Harfang is that many of our already existing and new targeted projects have overlapping potential for the discovery of both lithium-bearing pegmatites and gold mineralization,” added Ian Campbell.