Recent drilling by Frontier Lithium (TSXV: FL) at its Spark pegmatite lithium zone, part of its 69 sq. km PAK lithium project in northwestern Ontario, has confirmed the zone continues at depth.
The company drilled 1,340 metres across five holes at the Spark pegmatite in February 2019. All five holes intersected significant spodumene pegmatite.
The company has only received assays for one of the holes so far; it was drilled through three pegmatite zones totaling 215 metres of pegmatite averaging 1.4% lithium oxide.
Highlights from the hole include 80 metres grading 1.58% lithium oxide from 66 metres downhole in the second pegmatite zone and 100 metres grading 1.25% lithium oxide from 158 metres downhole in the third pegmatite zone.
In early April 2019, the company announced plans to build a demonstration concentrator plant at PAK to demonstrate the project's economic viability. The proposed plant would produce 15,000 tonnes lithium concentrate per year from surface samples at PAK. The company plans to begin building the plant in the next 12-20 months, once it obtains the requisite permits and financing.
The company tabled a prefeasibility study for PAK in 2018 that assigned the project a $301 million after-tax net present value at an 8% discount rate and a 38.3% after tax internal rate of return. The project would produce 1.14 million tonnes of technical grade concentrate at 7.2% lithium oxide and 115,500 tonnes of chemical grade concentrate at 6.6% lithium oxide over a 16 year mine life.
(This article first appeared in The Northern Miner)