International Lithium Corp. has announced the filing of a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) for the Raleigh Lake Lithium Project (“Raleigh Lake”, “The Property”, the “Project”), located approximately 25 km west of Ignace, Ontario, Canada.
The Project includes MREs for both lithium and rubidium, both of which are on the U.S. critical minerals list, and conceptualizes both open pit and underground mining scenarios for each metal. The two MREs are closely related due to their spatial relationships, but their respective resource estimates are considered separate and unique.
The results of the technical report indicate that the Project has technical merit based on results of the MRE. The Company plans on progressing its drill programs to build off results from its recently completed drill programs with goals to further delineate economic resources downdip and along strike of the current MRE and upgrade inferred resources to indicated. In addition, the Company seeks to further define the value that could be realized from the rubidium resource through market studies.
John Wisbey, Chairman and CEO of ILCÂ commented: “We are pleased with this maiden resource estimate, coming as it does after less than 14,000 metres of drilling and on only 600 hectares of our 48,500 hectares at Raleigh Lake. We are also very pleased that we have been able to declare a separate resource estimate for rubidium as well as lithium. This is significant because rubidium is (like lithium) on the U.S. critical minerals list, and moreover has a market price per kg as at today of around 50x that of lithium. The rubidium market, like that for caesium, is a relatively opaque one. We and our consultants will be doing a study over the next few months of the real market potential of rubidium products.”
Anthony Kovacs, COO of ILCÂ commented: “With the maiden MRE in hand we can begin to investigate the viability of an economic mining scenario at Raleigh Lake. The greatest value addition we have before our eyes is the excellent infrastructure currently available, and servicing the project area. The cost to replicate this infrastructure in more remote areas would be unfathomable considering that the Trans-Canada Highway runs adjacent to the project as do the trans-continental CP Rail tracks, electrical power lines and natural gas pipelines. The Township of Ignace currently serves as a base camp for our operations and must also be included as a net benefit to the project’s viability.”