International Lithium looking for big lithium returns from small town Ontario

Small towns and big potential. That’s the pattern across northwestern Ontario as companies like International Lithium Corp. (ILC) scour the region for battery-grade metals. 
ILC is holding on to two properties, Wolf Ridge and Raleigh Lake, and has benefits from partners in a third property, Mavis Lake. 
The towns of Upsala, Ignace, and Dryden stand to benefit greatly if and when ILC reaches the production stage. 
In a standard promotional video interview in 2023, CEO John Wisbey talked about the company’s goal of delivering a maiden resource estimate now that they’ve got drill results at Raleigh Lake. “We’re very pleased with the results and they’re significant for us,” said Wisbey. 
“We completed the final set of drilling in 2022 of a 10,000 meter program. And that’s significant because it now gives us the final results we need to get to a maiden resource estimate. And that’s a big deal. So, rather than just talking about how great the project is, we will soon be able to talk about how much lithium, and for that matter, rubidium, we’ve got there. And that’s a big step.” 
“15.8 meters at 2.27%. That’s encouraging for the lithium. The rubidium was pretty good, too. 4 meters at 1.21%,” he added. 
On March 1, 2023 the company published its maiden resource estimate that showed an open pit resource across categories containing approximately 500,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate. A separate resource calculated for rubidium estimated that a total amount of over 600 tonnes of rubidium metal is contained within a microcline deposit that exists as a zonation within the spodumene deposit. The details of the mineral resource estimate calculation are provided in a technical report filed on SEDAR under the company’s name. Wisbey says Raleigh Lake’s proximity to Ignace, is advantageous. “It’s a great location. Quite apart from being a lovely place, it’s a great location because it’s on the Trans-Canada highway. It’s got a rail line going through. It’s got a power line going through our claims and it’s got quite well built roads. So those are all really key criteria to lowering the cost of a project. We’re not in the middle of nowhere. That is going to help us enormously when we come to look at the economics.” 

The Raleigh Lake Lithium project is located near Ignace. The project consists of approximately 48,500 hectares (485 square kilometers) of mineral claims. A maiden Mineral Resource Estimate on Raleigh Lake was produced on March 1, 2023. In 2022 ILC completed around 10,000 metres of drilling. The project area is located within a 25-kilometer radius of the town of Ignace.
The Wolf Ridge property is comprised of 275 claim units (approximately 5,700 hectares) 20 km southwest of the town of Upsala, and 125 km northwest of Thunder Bay. The property is a grass roots lithium prospect recently highlighted in the “Ontario Geological Survey Resident Geologist Program Recommendations for Exploration 2021–2022.” The report highlights lithium potential in the Bedivere–Lac des Mille Lacs Lakes Area based on results from a lake sediment geochemical survey. 
An excerpt from the report states: “The Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) completed a lake sediment geochemical survey covering the Atikokan area (Dyer 1999a). A cluster of lake sediment lithium anomalies located on the north arm of Bedivere Lake returned the 6 highest lithium values, and the 9th highest value in the survey.

Mavis Lake
This project is near Dryden, and was previously a joint venture with Essential Metals Ltd. ILC and Essential sold it to Critical Resources Ltd. in January 2022. The area at the time of sale was around 2,600 hectares. The sale consideration was AUD 1,500,000 paid in cash and CRR shares. ILC receives further payments of up to a total of AUD 1,500,000 (CAD1,400,000 approx) from Critical Resources as follows if certain exploration milestones are hit. The first AUD 750,000 milestone payment has already been achieved.

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Tags: Northern Ontario / Exploration / Battery Metals / All Articles