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Spodumene discovered on surface at new zone at Case Lake

 

Published by
Global Mining Review,

Power Metals Corp. has discovered large spodumene megacrysts on the Northeast Dyke located 900 m northeast along the strike of the current drill programme on the North and Main Dykes. According to the company, the discovery of these large and abundant coarse-grained spodumene crystals gives evidence of the presence of high-grade lithium.

The Northeast Dyke has a pair of parallel pegmatite dykes: north and south outcrops similar to the North and Main Dykes that are currently being drilled.

Power Metals’ exploration team peeled back thick moss to discover abundant coarse-grained spodumene crystals on the south outcrop of the Northeast Dyke whereas the one previous historic grab sample had no spodumene. The spodumene crystals ranged from 3 – 13 cm long and up to 2 –3 cm wide. One green spodumene crystal was 32 cm long by 2 cm wide.

 

The mineralogy of the south outcrop is similar to that of the Main Dyke. The pegmatite consists of white coarse-grained K-feldspar, quartz, spodumene and muscovite. The quartz core of the pegmatite dyke contains up to 40% spodumene megacrysts with cross sections up to 14 cm across. The length of the spodumene crystals is always greater than the cross section, so these are significantly long crystals.

“These newly discovered spodumene crystals in this new zone are the largest I have ever seen on any property in all my years,” said Brent Butler, P.Geo and CEO of Power Metals.

The south outcrop spodumene pegmatite dyke appeared to be 3 – 6 m wide, but that was the limit of the peeled moss, the actual width of the dyke may be more with additional excavation. The south outcrop has a 70 m strike length.

Prospecting and peeling moss also revealed that the north outcrop of the Northeast Dyke also contains megacrysts of spodumene. A pale green spodumene megacryst 30 cm long and 8 –10 cm wide was discovered next to a cluster of radiating spodumene crystals. The pegmatite consists of spodumene, K-feldspar, quartz and aplite similar to the North and Main Dykes.

Power Metals is planning a 2000 m drill programme on the Northeast Dyke in January 2018.

 

Dr Selway, Vice President of Exploration, said: “The discovery of spodumene megacrysts in the two outcrops for the Northeast Dyke indicates that this dyke has high potential to host spodumene mineralisation similar to that in the Main Dyke. I am excited to drill the Northeast Dyke this winter to test the extent of the lithium mineralisation.”

Butler added: “Case Lake continues to amaze us. Firstly, we are nearing completion of our initial 5000 m drill programme and we will have a large amount of assays to press release to the market in the coming two months as we receive assay results from the lab. The first batch of assays we press released on 2 November were exceptional so we are excited to see more. Secondly, this new high-grade zone located approximately 1 km away from our current drill site is a huge discovery as the richness of spodumene in this new zone looks to be richer than what was on surface at our current drill location.”

 

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Lithium mining news Canadian mining news