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. 13th, 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% Cs2O over 1.0 m and 7.65% Cs2O and 1.45%
Li2O over 7.09 m,
additional the lithium mineralization is the highest found at
Case Lake with 4.75% Li2O, 2.71% Cs2O 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% Cs2O 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% Cs2O 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 % Cs2O 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 % Cs2O 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 Li2O% was prepared by sodium peroxide
fusion with analysis by ICP-OES with a detection limit of 0.002 %
Li2O. A Quality Control review of the standards, blanks
and core duplicates indicated that they all passed. The ore grade
Cs2O% 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
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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