Platinex Inc. (“Platinex” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce results from fieldwork at the Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project which covers key portions of the Muskrat Dam Lake greenstone belt in Northwest Ontario.
Field observations and bulk rock chemical data from samples collected at the Axe Lake claim block in September 2023 have revealed anomalous levels of rare metals (Rb, Cs, Ta, Nb) and lithium. Although historical government mapping indicated favourable geology in the area, this exploration program was the first time to target rare metals and represents the confirmation of rare metal values in the Axe Lake Deformation Zone (“ALDZ”) in the Muskrat Dam Lake greenstone belt. The Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project is held by Green Canada Corporation (GCC), in which Platinex has majority equity ownership.
The Muskrat Dam Project is located in Northwestern Ontario, approximately 125 km northeast of Frontier Lithium’s PAK lithium project and 125 km northwest of Newmont’s Musselwhite gold mine.
Highlights of the discovery include:
- chemically evolved, tourmaline-muscovite granitic pegmatite dyke swarm exposed over a
- minimum 0.5 by 2.2 km area on the Severn River
- beryl-type pegmatites with anomalous Rubidium (Rb) (845 ppm), Cesium (Cs) (42 ppm), Tantalum (Ta) (158 ppm), Niobium Nb (64 ppm), and Lithium (Li) (141 ppm)
- highest Tantalum 158 ppm or 225 times its mean upper continental crust value
- 40% of Nb/Ta ratios are below 2.0, signifying extreme fractionation
- pegmatite distribution controlled by Axe Lake Deformation Zone (ALDZ), a major ductile transcurrent fault system with 30 km inferred strike length on property
- similar deep crustal fault zones host rare metal pegmatite systems elsewhere, such as the Pakeagama Lake lithium pegmatite group in the Bearhead Lake deformation zone
- similarity of tectonic setting and lithochemistry to the Red Sucker Lake lithium pegmatite group, 160 km northwest in Manitoba, ostensibly in the same regional fault system
“The Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project was originally staked for its copper/nickel prospectivity, but the comprehensive work by Dr. Breaks and Mr. Osmani on the Axe Lake Deformation Zone has added a significant new aspect to the project,” says Greg Ferron, President and CEO, Platinex Inc.
“Tantalum is not easily found in economic concentrations, so these very early indications are particularly interesting as they shine a light on the Axe Lake Deformation Zone and the structural control of the mineralization in a major fault system,” says Dr. Fred Breaks, Geological Advisor, “Of interest, is the ratio of niobium to tantalum which suggests that tantalum was being concentrated compared to niobium. The significance of the other rare metals found in these grab samples serve as indicators to the tantalum, which in today’s world, has the higher value.”
The field examination of the 6,175-hectare Axe Lake claim block occurred from September 4-10, 2023, and included collecting 62 grab samples in two confined areas of the large claim block (see Figure 1). The work focused on an initial evaluation of lithium and related rare metals (Cs, Rb, Ga, Nb, and Ta). Also, it examined specific interelement magmatic indicator ratios as a function of granitic pegmatite rock type.
The ALDZ represents part of a significant regional fault zone system that extends at least 70 km northwest into the Sachigo-Ponask lakes area and into Manitoba, where lithium pegmatite mineralization (petalite) occurs at Red Sucker Lake. Deep crustal fault systems importantly represent S-type peraluminous pegmatitic granite generation sites via anatexis of clastic metasedimentary protoliths and as conduits for the emplacement of resulting fractionated granitic pegmatitic melts to higher crustal levels. Many rare metal pegmatite groups in the Superior Province of northwestern Ontario occur within major ductile deformation zones, most notably in the Bearhead Lake deformation zone (“BLDZ”), 160 km southwest of Axe Lake, where Frontier Lithium has established resources of 26 mt (M&I) of 1.62% Li2O and 32.4 mt (Inferred) 1.41% Li2O. Complex-type, petalite-subtype pegmatites are now known over a 54 km strike length of the BLDZ with the recent discovery by Blaze Minerals Ltd.
The Axe Lake pegmatite group also compares with the 0.5 by 14 km Red Sucker Lake, Manitoba pegmatite group, situated 155 km northwest, which contains a petalite pegmatite zone with a range of 0.57 to 1.48% Li2O. The pegmatitic groups in both areas show a significant overlap of data fields in the Nb vs. Ta and Cs vs. Rb diagrams, further supporting a similar fertile granite system at Axe Lake along the same regional fault system. Possible fertile parent granite bodies may exist in the batholithic areas immediately northeast of the ALDZ in the Severn River area adjacent to the greenstone belt boundary.
The Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project was selected as part of the Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP). Under OJEP, the Company will receive a grant covering 50 percent of qualifying exploration expenses accrued at the project between April 1, 2023, and February 15, 2024, with a maximum grant amount of $200,000. OJEP is an initiative of the Government of Ontario that aims to attract investment in early exploration, expand the pipeline of mineral development projects, including critical minerals, and lead to more mines and jobs in Ontario.