VANCOUVER - FE Battery Metals Corp [FE-CSE, FEMFF-OTCQB] said drilling has intersected lithium-bearing pegmatites in a previously unexplored area of its Augusta Lithium property in Quebec.
FE Battery shares advanced on the news, rising 6.35% or $0.04 to 67 cents. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $1.34 and 20 cents.
The company said drill holes LC23-60 and LC23-61 from the 2023 exploratory drill program intersected the pegmatites in an area approximately 600 metres to the west of the main Augustus Prospect, between Augustus and the Beluga Lithium zones.
The company said this new area, between the main prospects, sits within the prospective structural corridor that was interpreted by the Quebec Geological survey to possess similar mineral potential as the North American Lithium Mine (NAL) geology.
FE Battery Metals holds highly prospective areas for spodumene pegmatite exploration in Ontario and Quebec.
The Quebec projects, including the flagship Augustus property, are located within an emerging lithium district located near the mining hub of Val d'Or.
Sayona Mining Ltd.'s [SYA-ASX, SYAXF-OTCQB] North American Lithium Mine (NAL) and Authier property are two notable projects in the area that highlight the potential of the Augustus Lithium property.
As part of a plan to create a lithium mining hub in the Abitibi region, Sayona has restarted NAL and plans to integrate it with its Authier project, which has already reached the feasibility stage and will provide supplementary ore feed to NAL.
The Augustus project has several clusters of spodumene-bearing pegmatites that occur within the same geological setting as those of the NAL mine, located just six kilometres from the property. Pegmatite bodies include the Beluga, Augustus and NAL showings.
The Augustus property covers 700 mining claims spanning over 27,000 hectares. The property benefits from excellent local infrastructure with road network, railway, electricity, and trained manpower available locally.
Drill hole LC23-60 intersected two lithium pegmatites as follows: The upper pegmatite intersected a 2.75 metre wide zone with average 0.60% lithium oxide (Li20) at 78 metres drilled depth, including a one metre wide zone with 1.34% Li20 at 78.75 metres depth.
Drill hole LC23-60 also intersected at 87.1 metres, a 2.0-metre-wide pegmatite averaging 1.12% Li20, including a one-metre-wide zone with 1.51% Li20 at 88.1 metres depth.
Drill hole LC23-61 intersected a 2.3-metre-wide lithium pegmatite with average 2, 467 PPM or 0.53% Li20 at 207.7 metres drilled depth.
To date, 61 drill holes with a cumulative core drilling of over 12,000 metres have been completed on the property. "We are extremely pleased with the results of drill holes LC23-60 and LC23-61 from this exploratory step-out drill program west of the Augustus Lithium Property,'' said FE Battery Metals CEO Gurminder Sangha. These holes were strategically placed to test for the continuity of lithium pegmatites between our two main prospects,'' he said.