Vancouver-based QMC Quantum Minerals has received the initial assay results from drilling its 100% owned Irgon lithium project approximately 150 km northeast of Winnipeg. QMC’s property lies in the same pegmatite field that hosts a former tantalum mine.
The company says it is pleased with the drill results because they confirm a significant high grade spodumene mineralization that is open at depth. SGS Canada is currently preparing a resource estimate for the Irgon deposit.
The best results so far came from two holes:
- Hole IR-19-09: 3.7 metres of 1.85% lithium oxide, including a 2.5-metre section that returned 2.46% lithium oxide, 87 ppm tantalum, 26 ppm cesium, and 49 ppm niobium; and
- Hole IR-19-01: 9.8 metres of 1.29% lithium oxide, including 2.5 metres of 1.50% lithium oxide, 300 ppm tantalum, 47 ppm cesium, and 82 ppm niobium.
Lithium Corp. of Canada worked the Irgon pegmatite dike in the mid-1950s, eventually sinking a 74-metre shaft and erecting a mineral processing plant. When lithium prices fell, mining and milling at the project was suspended in 1957.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)