In today’s volatile market, one commodity is performing quite well, the fuel of the new, green economy – lithium. Lithium appears to have the greatest leverage for hard rock mining investors right now, likely due to current sentiment, as well as, its long term supply/demand picture. SIGMA Lithium Corporation (NASDAQ: SGML | TSXV: SGML) is the poster child for lithium explorers having gone from a market cap of next to nothing to roughly US$4 billion in a little over two years. Lithium prices are high enough now that a small amount of drilling can create a valuable resource fairly quickly. Tack on security of supply issues and President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and one needs to start looking even closer to home than the current sources of the majority of lithium resources like the Salar’s of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia (the Lithium Triangle) or Brazil (home of SIGMA’s deposit). Even Australia’s large hard rock reserves aren’t exactly convenient for the burgeoning North American EV market.
It’s time to find a legitimate, home grown solution if there is any hope of economically meeting the growth projections for lithium demand. Fortunately, there is no shortage of North American explorers out there trying to fill this need and perhaps ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME | OTCQX: ACLHF) could fit the bill. Led by an experienced team, ACME Lithium is a mineral exploration company focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing battery metal projects in partnership with leading technology and commodity companies. The Company has multiple North American projects in areas known for lithium development and exploration. Two are found in a highly prospective region for lithium production in Clayton Valley and Fish Lake Valley, Esmeralda County, Nevada, USA, and another three are in the pegmatite fields of the Bird River Greenstone Belt in southeastern Manitoba, Canada.
Today we’ll have a quick look at the two most advanced projects for ACME – Clayton Valley and Fish Lake Valley. The Clayton Valley project claims are located directly north of the only lithium brine production operation in North America, Albemarle Corporation’s (NYSE: ALB) Silver Peak Lithium mine, which has been in production since 1966. Clayton Valley has the potential to host lithium brines similar to Silver Peak, where samples analyzed up to 228 ppm lithium and concentrations up to +1,000 ppm have been found to occur within specific horizons of fine sediments. In June 2022, ACME commenced its Phase 1 Drill Program in Clayton Valley where the first drill hole (DH-1) was completed at 1,400 feet depth below ground surface to assess lithology, permeability features, clay, sand and gravel content, and lithium brine potential. Results announced August 17th reported lithium was detected from all brine samples at concentrations ranging between 38 and 130 mg/L with the highest concentrations from samples collected in the deep gravels at 1,350 feet and at 1,400 feet. The results strongly indicate the existence of a bicarbonate rich groundwater quality affinity which is typical in the Clayton Valley lithium brine aquifers.
The Company’s Fish Lake Valley (FLV) Project is located about four miles west-northwest of Australia-based Pioneer Ltd.’s Rhyolite Ridge Project where a 2020 resource of 146.5 million metric tons at 1,600 ppm lithium and 14,200 ppm boron was reported. On October 11th ACME announced it had mobilized a crew and equipment for a geophysical profile across a newly recognized conceptual target for mineralized tuff at the property. Field work is expected to be complete in two weeks, with data collected to test the graben concept and to be used to locate drilling test holes. The FLV geology and geomorphology are interpreted as a possible gravel covered graben while scattered outcrop samples assaying up to 600 ppm lithium and 1,270 ppm boron suggesting a mineral system is present.
It’s still early days for ACME Lithium but they are well funded to pursue their lithium dreams with approximately C$12 million in working capital which includes strategic investor Lithium Royalty Corporation and Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. After all, we’ve seen what SIGMA was able to convert approximately US$19 million in exploration expenditures into.
This article was published by: Dean Bristow
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