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Avalon Advanced Materials determined to make Ontario global cesium producer

Nov 18, 2021


While the rest of the exploration world is primarily focused on gold, silver, copper and battery metals like lithium, one company is targeting another rare element, cesium.

By Kevin Vincent
Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. announced in late September that it has received initial assay results from grab samples collected during a summer exploration program on the Lilypad Cesium Project, 350 km north of Thunder Bay.
The new results confirm the “exceptional cesium enrichment” in several Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum pegmatite dyke occurrences on the property. Cesium is a rare element in growing demand for many new technologies, but with very limited supply following the cessation of mine production from the world’s largest historical producer, the Tanco mine, near Bernic Lake, Manitoba.
“The Lilypad Cesium Project is proving to be a globally unique example of a large field of cesium-enriched LCT pegmatite dykes with significant resource potential,” said President & CEO, Don Bubar.
“With cesium continuing to be in very short supply, the company is now well positioned to help Ontario become the new global leader in cesium production including innovation of new downstream applications.”
Bubar says once all the geochemical survey results have been received and compiled along with the geological mapping data, next steps will be to plan for a diamond drilling program to test all the new targets including the western extension of the Pollucite Dyke. “This work would ideally be scheduled during winter months when access can made via a winter road,” he added.
A work program included line cutting, soil and biogeochemistry grid sampling, as well as geological mapping and sampling over the area of the known LCT pegmatite field. The soil and biogeochemistry results have not yet been received but are anticipated to indicate directions for extensions of the known pegmatites and identify new pegmatite targets in overburden-covered areas for testing in a future drill program.
Additional bulk sampling of the cesium-rich Pollucite Dyke was also carried out and Avalon now has about 400 kg of the pollucite mineralization available for further metallurgical test work. Sub-samples of the bulk sample assayed at Saskatchewan Research Council averaged 3.02% Cs2O, 1.07% Li2O and 0.03% Ta2O5, similar to the average grade of the historic resource.
Assays of rock samples received to date have confirmed significant cesium values in four LCT dykes on the property with three samples assaying greater than 1% Cs2O. Two of the highest cesium values reported in this work are from the Western Extension of the Pollucite Dyke, about 180 metres west of the closest historic drill hole indicating potential to at least double its strike length.
The Pollucite Dyke, with a historic resource estimate [1] of 340,000 tonnes grading 2.294% Cs2O and 0.037% Ta2O5 based on 9 holes drilled to a maximum vertical depth of 250 metres and along a strike length of just 140 metres, remains open for expansion to depth and along strike.
Samples assaying at or greater than 1% Cs2O were also obtained from the Rubellite Dyke, a second pegmatite with high tantalum enrichment located about 500 metres east of the Pollucite Dyke.
Two other little-explored pegmatites known as the Baseline and Opie Dykes were also found to contain significant cesium values. Some samples are also highly enriched in lithium where it occurs mainly in coarse grained spodumene. One sample from the Spodumene Dyke with coarse spodumene crystals returned 3.34% Li2O and the six samples collected averaged 0.7% Li2O.
Avalon Advanced Materials is a Canadian mineral development company headquartered in Toronto. Avalon specializes in critical metals and minerals with growing demand in new technology. The company has five critical minerals project across Canada, providing investors with exposure to lithium, rare earths, cesium, tantalum, feldspars, tin and indium. Avalon is currently focusing on its Separation Rapids Lithium Project near Kenora, Ontario and its Lilypad Cesium-Tantalum Project near Fort Hope, Ontario. Avalon is also evaluating opportunities to apply new extraction technology to recover rare earths and other metals from acid mine drainage at closed mine sites across North America, remediating outstanding environmental liability.

Come visit us at the Mining the Northwest Virtual event November 30th to December 2nd. Donald Bubar, CEO will be speaking November 30th during the conference. Register today and your name will go in a draw to win 1 troy ounce of Gold. https://miningthenorthwest.virtex.ca/

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