Power Metals' Rare Find: Cesium
Power Metals' Rare Find: Cesium
VANCOUVER, BC
,
Oct. 19, 2022
/CNW/ -
Power Metals Corp.
("
Power Metals
" or the
"
Company
") (TSXV: PWM) (FRANKFURT: OAA1) (OTCQB: PWRMF) is pleased to comment and
provide information to its recent banner press release on
Oct. 13
th
, 2022. Power Metals is
extremely thrilled with the recently announced high-grade cesium discovery in the West Joe Dyke at
the Company's 100% owned Case Lake Property in
Cochrane
, Ontario. The cesium (Cs)
mineralization is enclosed in lithium (Li) and tantalum (Ta) mineralization to make West Joe a three-
commodity deposit. The ongoing 2022 drill program intersected 24.07% Cs
2
O over
1.0 m
and
7.65% Cs
2
O and 1.45% Li
2
O over
7.09 m
, additional the lithium mineralization is the highest found at
Case Lake with 4.75% Li
2
O, 2.71% Cs
2
O and 396 ppm Ta over
2.0 m
in white to pink coarse-
grained spodumene.
In January of this year, world-leader Sinomine Resource Group ("Sinomine") joined Power Metals
Corp. with a sizable investment after Power Metals' initial discovery of cesium during the 2018-2019
drilling campaign (PWM press release dated
November 13
, 2018). Sinomine currently owns two of
the three occurrences of cesium that have been commercially mined, making them the ideal partner
for Power Metals Corp.
Johnathan More
, Chairman & CEO of Power Metals stated, "Sinomine's involvement with Power
Metals is very strategic to both parties. There is a direct railway line from the town of
Cochrane
to
the Tanco mine. Most importantly Sinomine has been involved in all areas of past cesium production
around the world. Additionally, we are still waiting for several more assays currently at the lab and
will be releasing them as soon as they are available."
The West Joe pollucite zone has Cs grades similar to that of Sinclair cesium mine,
Australia
now
held by Essential Metals Limited (ASX: ESS). In addition to the Cs grade, West Joe has the
advantages that the pollucite has shallow depths of less than
50 m
below surface and road access
to make it easy for future extraction. Another advantage of West Joe is that it has three economic
commodities in the same zone: lithium, cesium and tantalum. Canadian,
Ontario
and
United States
governments have labelled all three commodities as critical metals.
What is Cesium?
Cesium is a chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number in the periodic table. The ore
mineral of Cesium is pollucite, a Cs aluminum silicate mineral.
Why is Cesium so rare?
Pollucite crystallizes in highly fractionated lithium pegmatite dykes. Very few pegmatites are evolved
enough to contain crystals of pollucite. There are only five recorded occurrences of pollucite in
Ontario
of which Power Metals owns three occurrences: West Joe Dyke on Case Lake Property,
Marko's pegmatite on Paterson Lake Property and Tot Lake pegmatite on Gullwing-Tot Lakes
Property.
Globally, there are three occurrences for cesium that have been commercially mined: Tanco
pegmatite mine,
Manitoba, Canada
, Bikita pegmatite mine,
Zimbabwe
and Sinclair mine,
Australia
.
The Tanco underground mine has been in operation since the late 1960's. Tanco is mined for
tantalum (Ta) ore concentrates, pyroceramic spodumene (Li), pollucite (Cs) and rubidium (Rb). The
pollucite is processed on site to produce cesium formate fluid as a heavy mud for offshore oil drilling
in the North Sea. Sinomine Resources Group bought the Tanco mine from Cabot Corporation in
2019 including the underground room and pillar mine, spodumene concentrator mill and cesium
chemical processing facility and the mine which employs about 100 workers.
The Bikita mine, Masvingo Province,
Zimbabwe
has been in operation since 1950. Its main products
are technical grade petalite concentrates (Li ore) used in glass and ceramics and pollucite (Cs ore).
Sinomine Resources Group bought the Bikita open pit mine in
January 2022
. Sinomine plans to
produce spodumene, to build a plant and expand the existing mining operations at Bikita.
The Sinclair mine,
Western Australia
was drilled by Pioneer Resources Limited (ASX: PIO)
("Pioneer") in 2016 for petalite (Li ore) and pollucite was discovered and confirmed in
November
2016
(Pioneer Resources press release dated
Nov. 14
, 2016). Pioneer announced that it entered
into an offtake agreement with Cabot Corporation ("Cabot") to buy 100% of the cesium ore
extracted from
Sinclair Zone
(press release dated
June 20, 2018
). Sinclair mine was
Australia's
first
ever commercial cesium producer. Pioneer announced on
22 January 2019
that approximately
19,000 tonnes of pollucite-bearing rock with an average grade of 9.1% Cs
2
O has been mined and
crushed, to be sold within a specification under the Offtake and Loan arrangement in place with
Cabot. Cabot received the first shipment of cesium in
April 2019
at the Tanco mine (press release
Apr. 17, 2019
). Pioneer entered into a separate sales agreement and off-take with Sinomine
Specialty Fluids for 7,300 tonnes of ore with an estimated average grade of 4.5% Cs
2
O consisting
of pollucite, lepidolite and quartz (press release
March 16, 2020
).
What is Cesium used for?
The primary use of the cesium mined at Tanco,
Manitoba
is for cesium formate brines used for high
pressure, high temperature well drilling for oil and gas. Cesium bromide is used in infrared detectors,
optics, photoelectric cells, scintillation counters and spectrometers (United States Geological Survey
Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022). Cesium isotopes are used in atomic resonance frequency in
standard atomic clocks which play a vital role in aircraft guidance systems, global positioning
satellites and internet and cellular telephone transmissions (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries
2022).
What is the price of Cesium?
Pioneer sold 19,000 tonnes of pollucite ore with an average grade of 9.1 % Cs
2
O from the Sinclair
mine for an expected total of
A$17.4 million
between Jan and
Nov. 2019
, excluding the sales of the
low-grade material (press release dated
Sep. 11, 2019
).
Pioneer sold 7,300 tonnes of pollucite ore with an estimated average grade of 4.5 % Cs
2
O for
approximately
$1.2 million
from its Sinclair mine (press release dated
March 16, 2020
).
Dr.
Julie Selway
, VP of Exploration commented, "Power Metals is excited to have such a rare critical
mineral on the Case Lake Property and the ore grade lithium and tantalum at shallow depths is an
extra bonus."
Quality Control
The drill core was sampled so that
1 m
of the Case Batholith tonalite host rock was sampled
followed by
1 m
long samples of the pegmatite dyke and
1 m
of the Case Batholith. The sampling
followed lithology boundaries so that only one lithology unit is within a sample, except for the < 20
cm pegmatite veins in tonalite which were merged into one sample. The drill core samples were
delivered to SGS preparation lab in
Cochrane
by Power Metals' geologists. The core was prepared
at SGS Garson and analyzed at SGS
Burnaby, British Columbia
which has ISO 17025 certification.
Every 20 samples included one external quartz blank, one external lithium standard and one core
duplicate. The ore grade Li
2
O% was prepared by sodium peroxide fusion with analysis by ICP-OES
with a detection limit of 0.002 % Li
2
O. A Quality Control review of the standards, blanks and core
duplicates indicated that they all passed. The ore grade Cs
2
O% for > 10000 ppm Cs was prepared
by alkaline metal digestion with analysis by FAAS with a detection limit of 0.002 % Cs. Ore grade
cesium was analyzed by SGS
Lakefield, Ontario
which also has ISO 17025 certification.
Case Lake Property
Case Lake Property is located 80 km east of
Cochrane
, northeastern
Ontario
close to the
Ontario
-
Quebec
border. Case Lake Property consists of 585 cell claims in Steele, Case, Scapa,
Pliny,
Abbotsford
and Challies townships, Larder Lake Mining Division. The Property is 10 km x 9.5
km in size with 14 identified tonalite domes. The Case Lake pegmatite swarm consists of six
spodumene dykes: North, Main, South, East and Northeast Dykes on the Henry Dome and the West
Joe Dyke on a new tonalite dome. The Case Lake Property is owned 100% by Power Metals Corp.
A National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report has been prepared on Case Lake Property and filed
on
July 18, 2017
.
Qualified Person
Julie Selway
, Ph.D., P.Geo. supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical disclosure in
this news release. Dr. Selway is the VP of Exploration for Power Metals and the Qualified Person
("QP") as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Selway is supervising the exploration program
at Case Lake. Dr. Selway completed a Ph.D. on granitic pegmatites in 1999 and worked for 3 years
as a pegmatite geoscientist for the Ontario Geological Survey. Dr. Selway also has twenty-three
scientific journal articles on pegmatites.
About Power Metals Corp.
Power Metals Corp. is a diversified Canadian mining company with a mandate to explore, develop
and acquire high quality mining projects. We are committed to building an arsenal of projects in both
lithium and high-growth specialty metals and minerals. We see an unprecedented opportunity to
supply the tremendous growth of the lithium battery and clean-technology industries. Learn more at
www.powermetalscorp.com
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,
Johnathan More
, Chairman & CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the
content of this news release.
No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news
release. The securities being offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the United
States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws,
and may not be offered or sold in the
United States
, or to, or for the account or benefit of, a "U.S.
person" (as defined in Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act) unless pursuant to an exemption
therefrom. This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to
sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of the Company in any jurisdiction.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains forward-looking information based on current expectations, including
the use of funds raised under the Offering. These statements should not be read as guarantees of
future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties
and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially
different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on
management's reasonable assumptions, Power Metals assumes no responsibility to update or
revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law.
Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-
looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-
looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct.
Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they
involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this press
release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to several
factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents
which can be found under the Company's profile on
www.sedar.com
.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The TSXV has neither reviewed nor approved
the contents of this press release.
SOURCE
POWER METALS CORP
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For further information:
Power Metals Corp., Johnathan More, 515-401-7479,
CO: POWER METALS CORP
CNW 07:00e 19-OCT-22