Jan 7 2011
Strategic Metals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:SMD) has announced that it has staked eight mineral claims to reacquire 100% ownership of the Flat Lakes vanadium prospect, located 14 km by road northwest of the Cantung Mine in the southwestern corner of the Northwest Territories.
The Flat Lakes prospect is hosted in mudstones of Ordovician to Silurian age. It was discovered in 1966 by Placer Development Limited, which completed systematic outcrop sampling and five diamond drill holes between 1967 and 1971. Placer held the prospect until the 1990s when it was restaked by Nordac Resources Ltd. (which was later reorganized to become Strategic).
The vanadium-rich mudstones occur within a tight syncline that is about 20 km long. The core of the prospect has been tested for a length of 700 m and is defined by four diamond drill holes and outcrops along creeks, which cut through pervasive overburden cover. The main mineralized horizon typically ranges between 50 and 60 m in true thickness and grades about 0.6% V2O5 (vanadium pentoxide). Chip sampling by Placer and Nordac also identified a second mineralized horizon in overlying mudstones. Limited data from this upper horizon suggest that it grades between 0.5 and 0.6% V2O5 over a true thickness of 8 to 17 m. The mineralized horizons are open to extension along strike in both directions and to depth.
Vanadium pentoxide is used in the manufacturing of some types of steel while refined vanadium has potentially important applications in battery technology.
"The Flat Lakes prospect has demonstrated size potential and exhibits grades that are similar to deposits which are being mined or are currently going into production elsewhere in the world," states Doug Eaton CEO and President of Strategic. "Proximity to established infrastructure greatly enhances the significance of this project."