Power Metals to Focus on its High-Grade Cesium Discovery
Power Metals to Focus on its High-Grade Cesium
Discovery
VANCOUVER
,
Feb. 6, 2020
/CNW/ -
Power Metals Corp.
("
Power Metals Corp.
" or the "
Company
") (TSX
VENTURE:PWM)(FRANKFURT:OAA1)(OTC:PWRMF) is pleased to announce the strategic review committee has decided to
focus on our cesium mineralization in the spodumene pegmatites at Case Lake. Cesium is incredibly valuable as there are
only three cesium mines in the world and Power Metals owns three of the five cesium occurrences in the province of
Ontario
:
The Company's 100% owned West Joe, Tot Lake and Marko's pegmatites. Power Metals' West Joe Dyke at Case Lake
was discovered in
August 2018
at the end of a drill program. The 2018 drill program intersected high grade cesium
mineralization in six drill holes at West Joe: PWM-18-111, 112, 116, 123, 124 and 126 with up to 14.70 % Cs
2
O over
1.0 m
in drill hole PWM-18-126. The 2018 drill program was targeting lithium mineralization and Power Metals was excited when the
cesium mineralization was also intersected in the same drill holes.
Cesium is extremely rare globally. The United States Department of the Interior included Lithium, Cesium and Tantalum on its
list of Critical Minerals (USGS website:
https://www.usgs.gov/news/interior-releases-2018-s-final-list-35-minerals-deemed-critical-us-national-security-and
, dated
May 18, 2018
).
There are only 3 pegmatite mines globally that produce cesium:
Tanco,
Manitoba, Canada
(no longer producing)
Bitika, Zimbawe (currently not producing)
Sinclair,
Australia
(cesium ore is stockpiled)
There is a limited number of companies in the cesium supply chain. The Tanco mine and Sinclair's cesium ore stockpiles are
both owned by Sinomine Resource Group Co., Ltd based in
China
. Pioneer Resources Limited entered into an offtake
agreement with Cabot Specialty Fluids Ltd to sell 100% of the cesium ore extracted from the Sinclair Zone Cesium Deposit to
Cabot (Pioneer press release dated
June 20, 2018
). The Cabot Corporation's Specialty Fluids business including the Tanco
mine was sold to Sinomine Resource Group Co., Ltd. (
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190628005482/en/Cabot-Corporation-Completes-Sale-Specialty-Fluids-Business
, dated
June 28, 2019
). Following the sale of Cabot's Specialty Fluids business to Sinomine, Pioneer Resources has been
shipping its pollucite stockpiles (Cs ore) to Sinomine Specialty Fluids Limited (Pioneer press releases dated
Aug. 15, 2019
and
Sept. 11, 2019
).
Pollucite (Cs ore mineral) is rare in pegmatites in
Ontario
, as it has only been identified in five pegmatite localities in the
province: Power Metals' 100% owned Case Lake, Tot Lake and Marko's pegmatites and two other localities.
West
Joe Dyke
contains Cesium (Cs) mineralization as shown by the presence of pollucite in drill core (Figure 1) and
exceptionally high-grade Cs intervals:
14.70 % Cs
2
O over
1.0 m
, 13.0 to
14.0 m
, PWM-18-126
12.40 % Cs
2
O over
1.0 m
, 10.0 to
11.0 m
, PWM-18-112
6.74 % Cs
2
O over
5.0 m
, 11.0 to
16.0 m
, PWM-18-126
Additional Cs assays from the West Joe Dyke are given in Table 1. The Cs grades at West Joe are comparable with that at
Pioneer's Sinclair mine. Pioneer has been exporting their high-grade cesium at > 10% Cs
2
O to Sinomine Specialty Fluids, but
also has low grade material at ~3.5% Cs
2
O stockpiled (Pioneer Resources Limited press release dated
Sept. 11, 2019
).
Figure 1 Pale pink to grey pollucite with white veining next to pale green spodumene at 49.5 m, PWM-18-116, West Joe Dyke
(CNW Group/POWER METALS CORP)
Table 1 West Joe Dyke Cs
2
O % assays for drill holes PWM-18-111 to 127.
Drill Hole
No.
Including
From
(m)
To
(m)
Length
(m)
Cs
2
O
(%)
PWM-18-
111
12.00
13.20
1.20
2.36
PWM-18-
112
10.00
11.00
1.00
12.40
PWM-18-
116
43.68
44.68
1.00
1.43
PWM-18-
116
46.68
47.68
1.00
2.31
PWM-18-
116
48.64
50.10
1.46
2.61
PWM-18-
123
15.00
18.00
3.00
1.49
PWM-18-
123
27.66
29.70
2.04
4.54
PWM-18-
123
including
27.66
28.70
1.04
5.86
PWM-18-
124
9.00
11.00
2.00
3.92
PWM-18-
124
including
9.00
10.00
1.00
5.74
PWM-18-
124
12.00
14.00
2.00
4.88
PWM-18-
124
38.57
39.15
0.58
1.18
PWM-18-
124
41.50
42.18
0.68
5.14
PWM-18-
126
11.00
16.00
5.00
6.74
PWM-18-
126
including
13.00
14.00
1.00
14.70
Cesium is used as cesium formate brines to act as heavy mud for high pressure, high temperature offshore oil drilling to
lubricate drill bits and prevent blowouts (USGS commodity summary, Feb., 2018). The cesium formate mud is rented to oil
companies and recycled after use. Cesium isotopes are also used in atomic clocks which are important in cell phone
networks, internet, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and aircraft guidance systems. Cesium clocks are accurate to about 1
second in 20 million years. Cesium bromide is used in infrared detectors, optics, photoelectric cells, scintillation counters, and
spectrophotometers. Cesium is also used in the glass for night vision googles.
Power Metals Marko's pegmatite is located on our Paterson Lake Property, 60 km north of
Kenora
, northwestern
Ontario
.
Pollucite (Cs ore mineral) was first identified in outcrop in Marko's pegmatite in 1997 by Breaks and Tindle (Ontario Open File
Report 5966, 1997). In 2001, cesium was also identified in drill hole SR-12 with 6.37 % Cs
2
O over 1.0 and 7.35 % Cs
2
O
over
1.0 m
. Marko's pegmatite is open to the west along strike of the dyke with the potential to find more cesium
mineralization.
Power Metals' Tot Lake pegmatite is located 30 km northeast of
Dryden
, northwestern Ontario. Pollucite (Cs ore mineral)
was found in outcrop at Tot Lake in 1964, but it has not yet been drilled. Tot Lake pegmatite is underexplored with 3 drill
holes drilled in 1964 for Lithium and 3 drill holes drilled in 1978 for Tantalum.
Power Metals Corp. also announces the grant of 3,000,000 incentive stock options to officers, directors, employees and
consultants of the Company. The options are exercisable at a price of
$0.10
per share for a period of five years from the
date of grant.
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 then shipped to
SGS analytical lab in
Lakefield, Ontario
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 QA/QC review of the standards and blanks for this drill
program indicate that they passed and the drill core assays are accurate and not contaminated.
Case Lake
Case Lake Property is located in Steele and Case townships, 80 km east of
Cochrane
,
NE Ontario
close to the
Ontario
-
Quebec
border. The Property is 10 km x 9.5 km in size with 9 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. Case Lake Property consists of 449 cell claims in Steele, Case, Scapa, Pliny and
Abbotsford
townships, Larder Lake Mining Division. The Case Lake Property is owned 100% by Power Metals. The claims
have enough available exploration reserve to keep them in good standing for the next 5 years.
Paterson Lake
Paterson Lake Property is located in Paterson Lake and Treelined Lake Areas, 60 km north of
Kenora
,
NW Ontario
close to
the
Ontario
-
Manitoba
border. Paterson Lake Property is located within the Separation Rapids Greenstone Belt and hosts
multiple petalite-bearing pegmatite dykes. The Property was optioned from Exiro Minerals Corp. in 2017 (Power Metals
press release dated
April 20, 2017
). Avalon Advanced Materials Separation Rapids Lithium Project with 8.12 Mt at 1.37 %
Li
2
O measured + indicated resources as of
November 15, 2017
is located 1.2 km from the Paterson Lake Property (Avalon
Advanced Materials website:
http://www.avalonadvancedmaterials.com/projects/separation_rapids/
).
Gullwing-Tot Lakes
Gullwing-Tot Lakes Property is located in Drope and
Webb
townships, 30 km northeast of
Dryden
,
NW Ontario
with excellent
road access. Gullwing and Tot Lakes pegmatites contain spodumene. The Property was optioned from Exiro Minerals Corp.
in 2017 (Power Metals press release dated
April 20, 2017
). The Property is located 5.5 km northeast of Pioneer Resources'
Mavis Lake
spodumene pegmatite field.
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. A National Instrument 43-101 report has been prepared on Case Lake Property
and filed on
July 18, 2017
.
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 & Director
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, 646-661-0409, [email protected]
CO: POWER METALS CORP
CNW 09:00e 06-FEB-20