International Lithium completes maiden drill program at Raleigh Lake Lithium Project near Ignace
A total of 1,504 metres of NQ core drilling were completed in eight holes to test the continuity of spodumene bearing pegmatites and their associated lithium, tantalum and cesium mineralization down dip and along strike from outcrop and previous operators' drilling.
The royalty-free, 100-percent-owned Raleigh Lake project comprising a total of 3,027 hectares hosts a number of outcropping pegmatite bodies. The recent drilling focused on what the Company now refers to as Zone 1 (Figure 1), an area of approximately one square kilometre (100 hectares) that hosts Pegmatites 1 and 3. The two shallow dipping pegmatite dykes have been mapped at surface with Pegmatite 1 exposed along strike for at least 300 metres and intersected 400 metres downdip by drilling conducted prior to ILC's drilling campaign. Seven of ILC's eight widely dispersed holes, covering an area approximately 600 x 300 metres, intersected pegmatite.
The core has been logged and cut with samples submitted for chemical analysis. Assay results are expected by mid-May.
Logistics of the drill program were excellent as the project is road accessible and is just a short distance from the Trans-Canada Highway. The Raleigh project is located less than 20 kilometres directly west of the Township of Ignace, Ontario. It distinguishes itself from other lithium projects in Canada by being very well situated near to major public infrastructure; the Trans-Canada Highway, with direct access to Thunder Bay on Lake Superior, is less than six kilometres north of the project as is the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway, natural gas pipelines, and the hydro power line junction at Raleigh Lake. By having relatively easy access to public services coupled with no need to spend significant sums of money on building new roads or electric power lines to service the site nor buildings to house contractors, the Raleigh project posesses a substantial advantage over more remote mining projects.
With the drilling taking place exclusively in Zone 1, which is within one kilometre of the historic drilling, there are no results yet for Zones 2 to 5. These additional zones include claims acquired by ILC in 2016 and 2018 and include some with surface pegmatite exposures. ILC intends to carry out wider drilling in various phases on Zones 2 to 5 as targets are prioritized in these areas.
John Wisbey, Chairman and CEO of International Lithium Corp. commented "This was an encouraging drilling program for ILC with what appear to be good and solid results in Raleigh Lake Zone 1 that build significantly on our confidence of the project's potential. If the chemical analysis received over the next few weeks is favourable, that may well be sufficient to warrant follow-up with some preliminary economic analyses prior to further drilling in Zone 1. The board also believes that investment in further drilling in Zones 2 to 5 is highly warranted and remains hopeful, based on earlier geological analysis, that it could deliver even greater potential than we are defining at Zone 1."
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