Valor lines up lithium ducks on Canadian lakes

Valor Resources has secured the rights to acquire the 83-square-kilometre Frazer Lake lithium project in Canada’s Ontario province where pegmatite sampling has yielded 44m at 0.54 per cent lithium oxide.

The company, which is transitioning into a new entity to be known as Thunderbird Resources, today revealed it had signed a definitive purchase option agreement to pick up Frazer Lake. The project lies in the Thunder Bay region that has several significant lithium plays under development.

They include Rock Tech Lithium’s Georgia Lake project that has an indicated mineral resource of 10.6 million tonnes at 0.88 per cent lithium oxide, with production slated to kick off next year.

Green Technology Metals’ Seymour and Root projects are also under development. Seymour features a total mineral resource of 9.9 million tonnes at 1.04 per cent lithium oxide, while Root has an inferred mineral resource of 4.5 million tonnes at 1.01 per cent lithium oxide.

The option for Frazer Lake will cost Valor $80,000 and two tranches of shares at defined intervals, each worth $120,000 at 0.4c a share.

We are pleased to have signed a definitive purchase option agreement on the Frazer Lake Lithium Project as we continue to methodically tick the various boxes towards the repositioning of Valor as Thunderbird Resources over the next few months. The Fraser Lake Lithium Project is a potentially exciting addition to our portfolio and we look forward to getting teams on the ground to commence initial exploration activities.

As part of the agreement, Valor will be required to issue 1 billion pre-consolidation shares, subject to shareholder approval if it elects to go ahead with the 100 per cent acquisition of Frazer Lake.

But the company has already identified many spodumene-bearing pegmatites at the project and says they have been mapped and channel sampled – including one with an outcrop width of about 30m that is completely open along strike to the north-east and is yet to be drilled.

Other lithium oxide results from the 44m channel sampling result include 3m at 0.97 per cent, 3m at 1.27 per cent, 1m at 1.76 per cent and 2m at 0.87 per cent. Rock chip sampling of pegmatites has also thrown up lithium oxide assays of 7.26, 7.02 and 6.42 per cent, respectively.

The Frazer Lake project is one of three that Valor has put its hand up to acquire and they are all subject to option agreements announced late last year. It gives the company a low-cost entry into a portfolio of prospective lithium projects to complement its existing large portfolio of uranium and rare earths assets in Canada’s world-class Athabasca Basin.

Management has also pounced on the 55sq km Morrison River project in Ontario where five white pegmatite dykes were defined within the greenstone belt by the Ontario Geological Survey. The dykes trend north-west/south-east through 13km along strike and Valor says Morrison River, which lies about 530km north-west of Frazer Lake, is interpreted as being analogous to Frontier Lithium’s Pak lithium project.

The Pak deposit was discovered by the Ontario Geological Society in the late 1990s and was first drilled by Frontier Lithium in 2013. It hosts a rare technical/ceramic-grade spodumene with low inherent iron and is possibly the biggest technical grade deposit in North America, with a probable mineral reserve of 4 million tonnes at 1.79 per cent lithium oxide.

The third project Valor is pursuing is the 46sq km Jesaulenko lithium project, situated just 25km east of the Frazer Lake project. Jesaulenko comprises contiguous tenure on Archaean metasediments that have been intruded by mica-rich granites considered the likely sources of lithium mineralisation in the district.

Valor says it is working on the definitive agreement for the Morrison Lake ground and finalising the acquisition of the Jesaulenko project. It also says it has received firm commitments for a share placement to sophisticated and institutional investors to raise $1 million.

With all its lithium ducks lined up on Canadian lakes, it will be interesting to see which bird first takes flight.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au