- The impact of fossil fuels on the environment is driving new interest in electric vehicles and their lithium-ion batteries
- QMC believes that it can double the historical estimate for lithium on its Irgon Lithium Mine project
- QMC is advancing its lithium-rich property as it pushes planning forward to bring its project into production
International anxiety about planetary climate change, believed to be brought on by the growing use of fossil fuels, is spurring widespread interest in the discovery of electrical fuel-sourcing lithium deposits, and junior explorer QMC Quantum Minerals Corp. (OTC: QMCQF) (TSX.V: QMC) (FSE: 3LQ) is advancing toward a production decision that could confirm the viability for commercial production of the lithium-bearing spodumene mineralization at its Irgon project. The Irgon project is located in a region long-known for its spodumene and rare-element-bearing pegmatites. This Cat Lake-Winnipeg River rare-element pegmatite field of southeastern Manitoba also hosts Cabot Corporation’s nearby Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada’s (“TANCO”) rare-element pegmatite.
The renowned TANCO Mine is one of North America’s foremost spodumene mines. TANCO primarily produced spodumene for kitchen ceramics during past decades, but it has since shifted from initially being a tantalum-focused operation (http://ibn.fm/W4jef). It currently only mines pollucite mineralization for its cesium content. The recent ascendance of portable and wearable computerized products that depend on lightweight lithium-ion batteries for power, followed by a growing interest in lithium-ion-powered electric vehicles as an alternative to fossil fuel pollution, has created a new market for Manitoba lithium.
QMC recently completed 2,300 meters of drilling across 18 diamond drill holes, which intersected significant visible spodumene mineralization. The company is projecting a doubling of the historical estimate’s length, adding as much as 400 meters (1,312.3 feet) of spodumene-bearing pegmatite to the west and increasing the depth of mineralization below the historical estimate.
QMC is awaiting assay results from core samples obtained from the diamond core-drilling program. These results and all historical data from the property will be utilized to produce what the company expects to be a great enhancement of its historical mineral estimate of 1.2 million tons grading 1.51 percent lithium oxide over a strike length of 365 meters (1,197.5 feet) and to a depth of 213 meters (698.8 feet). Mineralization in the dike is open below this depth and also along strike. The historical estimate was calculated some 50 years ago and is currently non-compliant with NI 43-101.
The drill core samples have been submitted to SGS Canada’s Lakefield laboratory and will be assayed for 56 elements, including lithium, beryllium, rubidium, cesium, tantalum and niobium. Once received, results will be evaluated by QMC and its consultant, SGS Canada. In the meantime, the company continues to prepare for the upcoming summer field season, during which it will evaluate additional spodumene-bearing mineralized dikes that are known to exist on the property.
QMC is bullish on the value of hard rock-mined spodumene as opposed to the extraction of a lithium concentrate through dry lake evaporation techniques, as used in the Lithium Triangle.
“When lithium prices headed upward, investors learned that Chile was pouring out tons of the metal at low costs. The Atacama salt flats became famous, and people assumed that reaping lithium from brines was easier than pulling it out of rock,” the company states on its website (http://ibn.fm/lYX6t). “The truth is that, although lithium brines occur in many places around the world, only highly concentrated brines actually produce lithium economically. In contrast, hard rock lithium mines have numerous advantages. They do require more exploratory work; however, once the surveys and sampling are completed, hard rock pegmatite deposits are faster to mine and production is more reliable.”
QMC states that a typical hard rock mining effort takes three to five years to complete, and it is approaching three years of labor at the Irgon Dike.
The company also holds a 100 percent interest in a prospective volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) project in in the very productive Flin Flon greenstone belt of northwestern Manitoba. QMC has previously filed an NI 43-101 resource report on this Namew-Lake VMS Project. The project includes the contiguous Rocky Lake, Rocky-Namew and Namew Lake Properties, which total 22,945 hectares (56,698.3 acres).
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.QMCMinerals.com
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to QMCQF are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/QMCQF
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