By Shane Lasley
Mining News
Strong lithium, BIG surprise for Li-FT
Drills cut 34m of 1.35% Li2O at Fi SW; wide BIG East intercept North of 60 Mining News - September 20, 2023
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Last updated 9/21/2023 at 1:44pm
Li-FT Power Ltd.
The barely perceptible drill rig at the top right of this photo provides some sense of the scale of the outcropping Fi Southwest pegmatite on Li-FT Power's Yellowknife Lithium property in Northwest Territories.
Li-FT Power Ltd. Sept. 19 reported strong lithium intercepts and a BIG surprise in the latest batch of assays from its 2023 drill program at the Yellowknife Lithium project in Northwest Territories.
Li-FT's Yellowknife Lithium project is made up of 11 properties that cover some of the most prospective targets within the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province, a 9,600-square-kilometer (3,700 square miles) area east of the NWT capital city. The company has divided these properties into two groups – five in a road-accessible area immediately east of Yellowknife and a cluster of six about 50 kilometers (30 miles) further east.
The latest batch of results is from five holes drilled in three pegmatites on the road-accessible properties – FI Southwest, Shorty, and BIG East.
Highlights from this latest batch of drill results include:
• 12 meters averaging 1.19% lithium oxide from a depth of 59 meters in hole YLP0036 (Shorty).
• 34 meters averaging 1.35% lithium oxide from a depth of 67 meters in hole YLP0038 (Fi Southwest).
• 13 meters averaging 1.05% lithium oxide from a depth of 66 meters in hole YLP0039 (Big East).
• 11 meters averaging 1.28% lithium oxide from a depth of 111 meters in hole YLP0039 (Big East).
• 12 meters averaging 1.05% lithium oxide from a depth of 66 meters in hole YLP0045 (Big East).
• 13 meters averaging 0.71% lithium oxide from a depth of 96 meters in hole YLP0045 (Big East).
• 16 meters averaging 0.92% lithium oxide from a depth of 113 meters in hole YLP0045 (Big East).
"Fi Southwest and Shorty pegmatites continue to produce excellent drill results with demonstrable quantities of spodumene," said Li-FT Power CEO Francis MacDonald.
Highlights from previously reported assays from the 2023 drilling at Fi Southwest and Shorty include:
• 39 meters averaging 1.43% lithium oxide in hole YLP0003 (Fi Southwest).
• 33 meters averaging 1.39% lithium oxide in hole YLP0004 (Fi Southwest).
• 79 meters averaging 1.13% lithium oxide in hole YLP0005 (Fi Southwest).
• 60 meters averaging 1.26% lithium oxide in hole YLP0007 (Fi Southwest).
• 25 meters averaging 1.13% lithium oxide in hole YLP0033 (Shorty).
While the drilling has confirmed the depth of these large pegmatites seen on the surface, especially Fi Southwest, Li-FT was pleased to find out that BIG East is bigger underground than the outcrop.
"The surprise for us is that BIG East has more spodumene pegmatite material than expected, based on outcropping surface expression," said MacDonald. "Although grade is partially diluted by internal sections of wallrock, the overall amount of pegmatite dyke material at BIG East could add more tonnage than expected."
Yellowknife drilling resumes
Li-FT also reports that it has resumed its 2023 drill program at Yellowknife Lithium.
In mid-August, the company shut down drilling and demobilized personnel, essential equipment, and key drill core from the Hidden Lake Camp due to the wildfires that forced the approximately 20,000 residents of Yellowknife to evacuate their homes for about three weeks.
After a one-month suspension of its 2023 program, Li-FT resumed drilling at Echo on Sept. 14 and has since scaled up to six rigs turning on its Yellowknife Lithium properties.
Li-FT Power Ltd.
"We are relieved that the threat from wildfires in the vicinity of Yellowknife has decreased, and that residents and industry have been welcomed back to the area," said MacDonald. "We would like to commend front-line responders, essential workers, and the Indigenous, municipal, territorial, and federal governments for their efforts to resolve this very challenging situation and all residents who have been displaced for their tenacity and resilience during this difficult time."
Li-FT plans to continue drilling at Yellowknife into October.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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