VANCOUVER,
BC, May 29, 2024 /CNW/ - Power Metals
Corp. ("Power Metals" or the "Company") (TSXV:
PWM) (FRANKFURT: OAA1) (OTCQB: PWRMF) is pleased to provide an
update on exploration at its 100% owned Case Lake property (the
"Property") in northeastern Ontario. The Company has engaged Pioneer
Exploration to conduct a low level, high resolution Magnetic Drone
Survey at the southern portion of the Case Lake property. The
Company has also completed four (4) metallurgical drill holes into
known high-grade zones of pollucite containing cesium at West Joe
following on from positive results from SGS Lakefield on XRD (X-ray
diffraction) analysis on 10 high-grade intervals that were
previously reported by the Company between 2018-2022 that hosted
high-grade cesium.
CESIUM MARKET
The worlds current cesium market appears to be
non-transparent whilst being firmly dominated by China with only three pegmatite mines that
have produced economic grade cesium from Tanco in Manitoba, Bakita in Zimbabwe, and Sinclair in Western Australia. Of these three known mines
only Tanco in Manitoba, currently
owned by Sinomine, is in operation. Current pricing on cesium and
cesium chemicals remain very lucrative with this niche market being
controlled by China.
Spot pricing from Shanghai Metals Market
(https://www.metal.com/) currently has cesium valued above USD
$2,650 per ounce whilst gold is just
above USD $2,070 per ounce. Cesium
has been identified as an incredibly rare and critical mineral in
USA, Canada, Europe and Australia given its vast applications and
incredibly short supply.
Cesium is currently utilized in several
applications and predominantly cesium formate brines which assist
in the drilling of high temperature and pressure oil and gas
production wells. Other applications for cesium include infrared
detectors, laser technology, optical and photoelectric cells,
atomic clocks, data transmission of infrastructure for mobile
networks, GPS, internet, and X-ray irradiation for cancer
treatment.
Given the limited resources of global cesium and
increasing demand, there appears to be a mid to long-term supply
issue developing when the increasing demand from future markets are
not being fulfilled.
MAGNETIC DRONE SURVEY
Power Metals is commencing its summer 2024
exploration field activities with a high-resolution Magnetic Drone
Survey that is scheduled to commence in early June. The Company has
engaged Pioneer Exploration, an Ottawa based company that specializes in drone
geophysics to complete a total of 915 km survey lines that will be
flown at 25-meter line spacing. The survey will cover target areas
on the main Case Lake mineralization corridor that extends from
Dome Nine in the east to West Joe in the west and will enable finer
detection of pegmatite targets hosted at or near low magnetic
signatures.
METALLURGICAL TEST WORK
The company has completed drilling of four (4)
metallurgical large diameter HQ drill holes at the end of the 2024
drill program at Case Lake as part of our second stage of
metallurgical test work on the high-grade cesium mineralization at
West Joe. The core will be delivered to SGS Lakefield to commence
further test work on (Figure 1).
Haydn Daxter, Power Metals CEO commented "The
commencement of test work and recent confirmation of high-grade
pollucite continues to add weight to the highly prospective
potential at Case Lake. Globally the critical status of cesium is
still in its dormancy as a number of governments have commenced
initiatives to become increasingly self-sustaining. Power Metals is
well placed to leverage off the high demand and low supply
currently of cesium. I am looking forward to commencing our busy
summer program with the drone survey commencing next
month."
Johnathan More,
Chairman of Power Metals commented "We are extremely pleased with
the progress at Case Lake and further to the positive first round
of test work from SGS we look forward to results from the
metallurgical holes recently completed, along with commencement of
our summer program. Cesium is a truly unique mineral that is in
very short supply which has seen a lot of attention drawn to the
Company over the past 4 months. Power Metals is fully-funded
to continue exploration and drilling activities through the rest of
2024."
WEST JOE POLLUCITE CONFIRMED BY XRD TEST WORK
AT SGS CANADA
Mineralogical test work completed by SGS Canada
as part of an ongoing metallurgical studies on Cesium, Lithium, and
Tantalum mineralization at Case Lake confirmed pollucite mineralogy
in ten (10) samples that were collected by quarter sampling drill
core from six (6) holes that Power Metals reported high grade
cesium mineralization between 2018 and 2022 (Table 1). The results
of the XRD (semi-quantitative X-ray diffraction) analysis displayed
high mineralogical content of pollucite that is consistent with
cesium grades in individual assay samples that have been previously
reported by Power Metals (Refer to press releases announced on
November 13, 2018 and October 13, 2022).
Table 1 –
Summary of Pollucite Content from XRD Results Reported in this
Press Release
|
Hole
ID
|
Sample
|
From
(m)
|
To
(m)
|
Interval
(m)
|
Pollucite
(Wt. %)
|
PWM-18-123
|
972958
|
27.7
|
28.7
|
1.0
|
6.70
|
PWM-18-124
|
972954
|
12.5
|
13
|
0.5
|
17.50
|
PWM-18-124
|
972956
|
41.5
|
42.2
|
0.7
|
5.70
|
PWM-18-126
|
972960
|
14
|
15
|
1.0
|
35.80
|
PWM-18-128
|
972961
|
21
|
22
|
1.0
|
11.20
|
PWM-22-143
|
972951
|
14
|
15
|
1.0
|
66.90
|
PWM-22-143
|
972952
|
15
|
16
|
1.0
|
49.00
|
PWM-22-143
|
972953
|
16
|
17
|
1.0
|
30.00
|
PWM-22-143
|
972963
|
17
|
18
|
1.0
|
4.20
|
Sampling and QAQC Procedures
Quarter core samples from selected intervals that
reported high-grade cesium mineralization in holes drilled between
2018 and 2022 were put into plastic sample bags with a unique
sample tag for each sample. Samples were dropped at SGS Laboratory
in Cochrane, Ontario and were
subsequently sent for further processing and analysis to SGS
Lakefield for major-oxides, cesium, lithium, and tantalum.
Major-oxides and tantalum were analyzed using borate fusion XRF.
Cesium and Lithium were analyzed using 4-Acid digest AAS and sodium
peroxide fusion ICP-AES respectively. Mineralogical analysis was
completed using BRUKER AXS D8 Advanced Diffractometer for
semi-quantitative XRD and multi-element analysis that included
cesium and lithium were used for chemical balance. About 15% of the
samples submitted to SGS Canada ("SGS") for multi-element
analysis were QAQC samples that were inserted into the sample
stream and consist of a high- and low-grade lithium, Tantalum, and
Cesium standards, blank material, and duplicates. SGS is
independent of the Company.
Case Lake Property
The Case Lake Property is located 80 km east of
Cochrane, northeastern
Ontario close to the Ontario - Quebec border. The Property consists of 585
cell claims in Steele, Case, Scapa, Pliny, Abbotsford and Challies townships, Larder Lake
Mining Division. The Property is 10km by 9.5km in size with 14
granitic domes. The Case Lake pegmatite swarm consists of six
spodumene dykes known as the North, Main, South, East and Northeast
dykes on the Henry Dome, and the West Joe dyke on a new dome,
collectively forming mineralization trend that extends for
approximately 10km (Figure 4).
Power Metals have completed several exploration
campaigns that have led to the discovery and expansion of new and
historic spodumene bearing LCT pegmatites at Case Lake. The Company
has drilled a total of 19,607 meters of core between 2017 and 2024
at the Property. The Case Lake Property is owned 100% by Power
Metals Corp. A National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report has been
prepared on Case Lake Property and filed on July 18, 2017.
Pelletier Property
The Pelletier Property is located 50km south of
Hearst, northeastern Ontario close to a network of forestry roads.
The Property consists of 337 mineral claims that account for a
total of 7000 hectares in Franz, Roche, Scholfield, and Talbot
townships in the Porcupine mining division. The Pelletier Project
is characterized by LCT prospective S-type pegmatitic granites
intruding into metasedimentary and amphibolite of the Quetico at or
near Archean terrane boundary between the Quetico and Wawa sub-provinces.
Decelles Property
The Decelles Property contains 669 claims,
covering 38,404 hectares of LCT prospective ground near the mining
centers of Val-dÓr and Rouyn-Noranda, approximately 600km from
Montreal. Power Metals acquired
the Decelles and Mazerac properties from Winsome Resources in 2023
in a deal that allowed Winsome to increase its stake to 19.59%
(Refer to press release announced on August
24, 2023). The geology of Decelles property is part of the
Archean Pontiac sub-province where S-type LCT prospective,
pegmatite bearing, granitic Decelles Batholith intrudes into
metasedimentary units of the Pontiac Group. Spodumene and Beryl
bearing pegmatites have been reported historically within the
Pontiac sub-province in
association with S-type garnet-muscovite granite. The Decelles
property is adjacent to Vision Lithium's Cadillac property where
discovery of high-grade lithium pegmatites was reported in
2022.
Mazerac Property
The Mazerac Property is located approximately 30
km east of Power Metals' Decelles property near well-established
mining camps in the Abitibi region of Canada and is accessible by network of
mining-grade forestry roads. The Mazerac property contains 259
claims that cover 14,700 hectares of LCT prospective ground near
the mining center of Val-dÓr and Rouyn-Noranda. The regional geology of Mazerac
is similar to Decelles where S-type LCT prospective, pegmatite
bearing, granites of Decelles Batholith intrude into
metasedimentary units of the Pontiac Group. Spodumene and Beryl
bearing pegmatites have been reported historically within the
Pontiac sub-province in
association with S-type garnet-muscovite granite.
Pollucite and Cesium
Pollucite is a rare mineral that hosts high grade
cesium and is associated with highly fractionated, rare element
pegmatites. The main source of cesium known globally is pollucite
(Cs,Na)₂(Al₂Si₄O₁₂)·2H₂O,
(https://www.gov.mb.ca/iem/geo/industrial/pollucite.html).
Currently the Tanco mine in Manitoba,
Canada is the only operating cesium deposit and holds over
60% of the known reserves globally.
Scientific and Technical Disclosure
The scientific and technical disclosure included
in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Amanuel Bein, P.Geo., Vice President of
Exploration for Power Metals, a Qualified Person under National
Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects.
Exploration data was collected and verified following the
guidelines outlined in CIM's Mineral Exploration Best Practice
Guidelines.
Power Metals
Power Metals Corp. is a diversified Canadian
mining company with a mandate to explore, develop and acquire high
quality mining projects. We are committed to building an arsenal of
projects in both lithium and high-growth specialty metals and
minerals. We see an unprecedented opportunity to supply the
tremendous growth of the lithium battery and clean-technology
industries. Learn more at www.powermetalscorp.com.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Johnathan More,
Chairman & Director
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adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.
No securities regulatory authority has either
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securities being offered have not been, and will not be, registered
under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the
"U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not
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person" (as defined in Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act)
unless pursuant to an exemption therefrom. This press release is
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sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of the
Company in any jurisdiction.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Information
This press release contains forward-looking
information based on current expectations, including the use of
funds raised under the Offering. These statements should not be
read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements
to be materially different from those implied by such statements.
Although such statements are based on management's reasonable
assumptions, Power Metals assumes no responsibility to update or
revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or
circumstances unless required by law.
Although the Company believes that the
expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking
statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be
placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can
give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since
forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by
their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties.
These statements speak only as of the date of this press release.
Actual results could differ materially from those currently
anticipated due to several factors and risks including various risk
factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents which can
be found under the Company's profile onwww.sedar.com.
This press release contains "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act
of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of
1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made
pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The TSXV has neither reviewed nor
approved the contents of this press release.
SOURCE Power Metals Corp.