The world needs more Canadian mining
Lithium leads the way Exploration bouncing back in Saskatchewan
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President’s Message. Stephen Masson 6
Message from the Honourable Greg Nesbitt, Minister of Natural Resources and Northern Development 10
Saskatchewan is a North American leader in critical minerals 12
Lithium: Manitoba leading the way 14 Saskatchewan Exploration and Development highlights for 2022 16
Canadians want more mining –Can we deliver? 23
Aboriginal agreements and permitting 24
Rockcliff Metals is poised for discovery and growth in a world-class VMS mining camp 26
First and Foremost (Lithium) 28
Geochemistry lab on the Prairies builds a global presence 30
ACME Lithium: The future starts here 32
Establishing a critical metals champion in Canada’s backyard 34
Snow Lake Lithium hosts LG Energy Solution as part of collaboration to create a lithium hydroxide processing plant 37
Watson Gloves helps industry meet their sustainability goals 40
Association for Mineral Exploration presents Roundup 2023: Critical to our future 42
Dumas Contracting Ltd. is committed to excellence and community 44
Cost-effective and efficient geotechnical classification using machine learning 46
Skyharbour intersects additional uranium mineralization at high-grade Moore Lake Project and plans for upcoming winter drill programs 48
Manitoba government paving the way for Manitoba’s first potash development 50
T2 leading the way to renewable energy 52
The Manitoba-Saskatchewan Prospectors and Developers Association, as a body of members, is not responsible for statements made or the opinions offered in the publication. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained, and the reliability of the source, neither the publisher nor the association in any way guarantees nor warrants the information, and are not responsible for errors, omissions or forward-looking statements made by advertisers.
Potash and Agri Development Corporation of Manitoba Ltd.
Dumas Contracting Ltd.
Earthex Geophysical Services
Foran Mining Corporation
Rockcliff Resources Inc.
SaskTel
SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc.
T2 Metals (Formerly Aguila Copper Corp.) 53
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This has been a good year for min ing overall, with relatively high metal prices, especially in the battery metals and uranium, al though financing for Juniors remains sluggish. With the fuel shortage partly caused by the Canadian and US gov ernments’ war on fossil fuels, as well as the war in Ukraine for Europe, nuclear power plants are now seen as part of the solution for energy needs. Power is still needed to charge the batteries no mat ter how good the battery technology. This has created opportunities and good fortune for explorers and producers in uranium, such as Cameco, Baseload, CanAlaska Uranium Ltd., UEX, and oth ers in Saskatchewan.
Foran’s McIlvenna copper-zinc-silvergold base metal deposit has been the highlight for base metals in the region with financings and mine development and a bulk sample progressing well. Fo ran – with potentially $288 million in their treasury – are close to the $368 million to finance the project. A new dis covery by Foran northeast of the McIl venna deposit, along with their Bigstone deposit, bodes well as potential sources of additional feed when a complex is built.
Potash in Saskatchewan is also benefit ting from the loss of Russian feed to the world following western sanctions. The federal government’s approach to fer tilizers, driving up the costs for farm ers, comes at a time when the economy is struggling with high food costs and general inflation due mainly to the car bon tax on fuel that drives up all costs as Canada is a large country and long
transportation routes and winter heat ing a reality.
The market was surprised that Rio Tinto placed its Star-Orion South Diamond Project, which it shares with Star Dia mond Corp., on care and maintenance. This large deposit appeared to be pro ceeding to the development of Saskatch ewan’s first diamond mine. It is welcom ing news that North Arrow will be once again exploring on its Pikoo project in the Pelican Narrows area of northeast Saskatchewan this year.
In Manitoba, the new leadership of Pre mier Heather Stefanson has brought a breath of fresh air to the struggling min ing and exploration sector, especially the hurting north. After several decades of neglect, it’s heartening that Premier Stefanson sees the enormous mineral endowment of the province and is now focused on removing the impediments to mineral investment and sustainability of the north.
At this year’s PDAC Convention, Pre mier Stefanson announced to a packed Manitoba reception that clear and strict timelines would apply to the issuance of work permits. This was met with rousing applause. The Premier also mentioned that a Director of Permitting position in the Department of Natural Resources and Northern Development would over see this process.
The new Premier has vowed that it is her intention to change the mineral invest ment climate away from discouraging exploration in Manitoba towards wel coming companies and to take away the bureaucratic obstacles that have been
a roadblock to exploration especially regarding permitting. Lori Stevenson, the new Director of Mines, formerly with Crown Lands and experienced in land issues, has certainly helped. What has also changed the tone is the cre ation of an experienced team focused on economic development especially in the north, with people like Michael Swistun, Craig McDonald, and Ed Huebert, who have brought clarity and energy focused of the economy. The Director of Permitting is Jeff Kraynyk, who is mandated to ensure that work permits are issued in a timely manner. If you have problems, give him a call. Mike Armstrong, a pragmatic very experience man in Natural Resources, being appointed as head of the explo ration permitting section has been applauded by all. This is indeed good news.
Still, struggles continue in permitting, reflecting that some bureaucrats in Re sources have not yet got the message that the premier intends to reopen Manitoba for business and to focus strongly on creating real opportuni ties in the north centered around min ing, which has been the main driver of the north’s economy. She has also maintained that exploration and min ing will work with First Nation Com munities so that they may benefit from exploration and mining in the north as being more involved and are part of the solution. This whole approach en
hances the work done by former Chief Ron Evans and former Deputy Premier James Downy on the Manitoba Ab original Mineral Accord that set out the framework for government, First Na tions Groups, and industry for mineral economic development of resources for the benefit of northern communities and First Nations Peoples on their tradi tional land. A good document, but what was missing (or at least not implement ed) was actually removing the bureau cratic roadblocks to mineral exploration investment by placing people who could carry the spirit of the agreement. The Premier and her new team are now try ing to do that. Those I have spoken to have also taken a dim view of the cre ation of unnecessary parks that alienate and sterilize huge tracks of land from exploration and mineral development, which do very little for the economy of the north and its communities.
In Manitoba, the advent of battery min erals has seen a great advance in explo ration in Manitoba’s rich endowment of rare-earth (especially lithium) pegma tites in the Winnipeg River-Cat Lake pegmatite field of southeastern Mani toba, where it already has one worldclass producer with the Tanco mine, but also other major players like New Age Minerals; Exploration Minerals and their partner Mineral Resources, QMC; CBLT Limited; ACME Lithium; and WS Ferreira Limited on lithium pegmatites. Snow Lake is another hot spot for Lithi um with Foremost Lithium Resources & Technology Ltd., Snow Lake Resources, Quantum Mineral Corp., and Silverton Metals exploring vigorously – although again there have been some permitting issues. What is not going ahead is Vi sion Lithium on their Godslith Lithium project at God’s Lake, where no work permits have been issued to date, nor the TLE application removed from their legally held dispositions. It was sad to see the last mine in Flin
Flon (founded in 1927) close down, with Hudbay’s closure of the Triple 7 Mine af ter 100 years of mining in the area. Hud bay continues with its mines in the Snow Lake area, where much of its workforce is now. Hopefully, Hudbay will develop additional deposits in the next few years. Rockcliff Metals – with its Tower, Rail, Bur, Copperman, and Morgan Cu-Zn Ag, and Au VMS deposits – will likely help keep the area producing mineral ores as well.
The newest discovery in the Flin Flon Belt has been Callinex’s Rainbow, Oden, and Alchemist Cu-Zn, Ag, Au VMS de posits west of its Pinebay; Cabin, Baker Patton; and, Don Jon deposits, all of which occur along the same “Growth Fault” structure. Latest reported results from Drill Hole PBM-177 indicated an intersection of 33.67m of 4.29 per cent copper, 0.22 g/t gold, 4.63g/t silver and 0.31 per cent zinc including 10.47m of 5.90 per cent copper, 14.43m of five per cent copper and 7m of 6.38 per cent cop per. This is very impressive. The writer understands that Callinex is in the pro cess of calculating a new resource for the project. Flin Flon may see a reopening of the main camp for mining.
At the northeast boundary of the main Flin Flon camp is a new player called Bo real Gold Inc., which has 15 claims total ing 1,507 hectares, located and contigu ous between Hudbay’s Vamp Lake VMS deposits and Minnova’s Puffy Lake Gold mine. It contains a 3.5 km long VMS copper gold rich VMS horizon simi lar to Vamp Lake and a separate ninekilometre-long gold structure similar in mineralogy to the Puffy Lake Mine. Bo real also has a large property northwest of Flin Flon, in the Wildnest Area, north of the Schotts Lake VMS deposit. Boreal has raised approximately $415,000 for exploration on these properties in 2022. On both projects, the immediate plan is to carry out large Airborne Electromag netic Surveys for VMS deposits this year.
Of real importance to the exploration and mining industry has been a Supreme Court ruling on property rights for land developers. The 5-4 ruling targets gov ernments that steal land through devel opment freezes or zoning changes. The Globe and Mail reads “The Supreme Court of Canada has given developers and property owners a major victory, making it easier for them to sue govern ments over regulations that remove all reasonable uses of their lands. The 5-4 ruling on Friday takes aim at govern ments that in effect steal land, through development freezes, zoning changes, or environmental restrictions that render private property unusable.”
“The Charter is not, and never has been, the sole source of Canadians’ rights against the state; in particular, the com mon law also affords protections of indi vidual liberty,” Justice Russell Brown and Justice Suzanne Côté wrote for the ma jority. (The common law is a thousandyear-old body of precedents.)
This is important because legally staked mining claims have been virtually ex propriated without compensation in Manitoba by the creation of parks and by allowing Treaty Land Entitlements to be placed upon them. Treaty Land En titlements cannot be placed on hydro, parks, private lands, resorts, or for estry allocations in the province; why only mining claims were chosen to be expendable is a message the province does not want to put forward and was a colossal error. This has disallowed the owners of these claims from rightfully exploring their legally held claims by not permitting the issue of work permits. This was a bureaucratic mistake by the Province and the Mines Branch to al low a TLE to be placed on legally held
claims. The MSPDA would recommend the Province remove the TLE from min ing claims or at least compensate the holders for lost work and the cost of lost opportunity that these mineral claims could have had, and secondly, to place into the Mining Act, that parks or TLE cannot be placed on mining claims and that access to these properties cannot be denied. Why? Because the message to investors is that should you find a de posit with potential to be a mine, it can be stolen by the Province or some other group. This is an anathema to those in vestors wishing to bankroll exploration in the province, as all the dollars and time invested as well as lost future earn ing can be lost. They could have been ex ploring elsewhere, where investors and industry could have benefited from such a discovery. This must be rectified.
Our colleague Jim Campbell writes, “Most people don’t know Canadians don’t have property rights. China has! Russia has! United States has, but Can ada does not. Property rights were dealt away to the three NDP premiers at the time to get their concurrence to accept the Constitution being patriated to Can ada. The NDP premiers declared there was enough other collective rights and didn’t want specific individual rights like property rights in the Constitution.
Read Sigfusson’s Roads by Svein Sigfus son for a real-life story on lack of prop erty rights. Famous and historic book.
And MSPDA member Peter Dunlop writes, “I like the references to common law still applies regardless of what is in or not in the so-called Charter of Rights.”
On a sad note, Harley Davy of Birch
River (a member of MSPDA), who I acted as an advocate for regarding permitting and assessment issues, has tragically passed away. Harley may have been onto a new kimberlite field in the sub-Palaeozoic of Manitoba. I have been assured under section 200 of Manitoba’s Mining Act that his mining claims will be protected until his heirs can legally deal with them. Hopefully, the Province will graciously accept the assessment he was hop ing to be accepted as a tribute to his efforts as a fellow explorationist and the Province’s failure to issue a timely work permit.
It is with optimism that I look forward, along with our fraternity of explora tionists and developers in Saskatch ewan and Manitoba, to an exciting exploration year in 2023. ✘
An As Minister of Natural Re sources and Northern Develop ment (NRND), I am honoured to provide an update to the Mani toba-Saskatchewan Prospectors and De velopers Association on mining and ex ploration initiatives.
First, I’d like to say that it’s very exciting to begin this role during this historic and un precedented time. I’m thrilled that Mani toba is experiencing the highest level of exploration expenditures in the history of the province. Natural Resources Canada has reported exploration expenditure in tentions for 2022 at $154.6 M.
This past June, Manitoba sent its larg est-ever delegation to the annual Pros pectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) in Toronto. Led by The Honourable Heather Stefanson, along with my colleague the Honorable Cliff Cullen, Minister of Economic Develop ment, Investment and Trade and myself, the province showed our commitment to
the industry, our Indigenous partners and supported Manitoba’s efforts as we set the stage to become a top mining destination.
While at PDAC, we were proud to an nounce that the Manitoba government has approved our first potash develop ment, allowing the Potash and AgriDevelopment Corporation of Manitoba (PADCOM) to start extraction and pro duction near the community of Russell. This is a significant step forward in our commitment to establish Manitoba as a global leader in sustainable mineral de velopment.
The Province continues to implement significant actions with a focus on eco nomic recovery and growth.
• A new Consultation and Reconciliation Unit was created within our department to further Manitoba’s commitment to working with Indigenous governments to ensure that communities share in the benefits that result from sector growth.
• In 2019, the Mineral Development Ac
tion Plan and Protocol template was released to support First Nations par ticipation in the development and im plementation of protocol agreements. Since then we have continued to engage First Nation governments to support participation in the mining sector. We have also adapted processes to incorpo rate remote and virtual delivery mecha nisms. This enabled consultation pro cesses with communities to continue despite public health related travel and gathering restrictions.
• The Manitoba Mineral Development Fund (MMDF), introduced in 2019, has been a tremendous success. To date, the fund has provided over $3.5M to sup port 25 mining projects in the north.
• We have renewed our agreement with the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce to deliver MMDF with the mandate to
invest $10M over the next three years to increase exploration and mining activity and increase Indigenous participation.
• A new Business Development Services Unit with a dedicated Permit Office has been organized to focus on permit modernization. This new office will im prove coordination as a single point of contact and source of information and continue to advance these initiatives and priorities:
• Online “MineManitoba” dashboard –designed to streamline the permitting process and provide a wide range of information related to exploration and mining activities.
• Tracking the status of permits submit ted to ensure they are processed in a timely manner.
• Providing a concierge service for com panies working in or looking to work in Manitoba.
• Supporting industry coordination with the Consultation and Reconciliation Unit to facilitate early engagement.
Manitoba has committed to undertaking the development of a Manitoba Minerals Strategy. The collective plan for growth is based on developing an investment friendly environment for mineral devel opment, boosting geoscience knowledge, and improving land-management and the participation of Indigenous communities.
The Manitoba Geological Survey is con tinuously updating Manitoba’s geoscience knowledgebase including a modernized, innovative Mineral Deposits Database, co-developed the Pan-Canadian Geosci
ence Strategy, and national participation in the collaborative Targeted Geoscience Initiative and Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) programs to ad vance sustainable and economic develop ment of Canada’s mineral resources.
Our province’s natural resources wealth, including an abundance of critical miner als and renewable energy production, po sitions Manitoba for opportunities in the green energy and mining sectors. As we continue to move our economy forward, Manitoba remains committed to working with our partners, industry, First Nations and northern communities to regain our status as one of the top jurisdictions in the world for exploration investment. ✘
more@mymts.net
KEN LAPIERRE MSPDA Vice Presidentken@rockcliffmetals.com
LAMAITREVice President Representative of Saskatchewan rlemaitre@uexcorp.com
EDGAR WRIGHT Secretary/Treasurermspda@aski.ca
Reiter, Minister of Energy and Resources for Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan’s mining industry is growing the province’s economy through the production of critical minerals. Already a major producer of three critical minerals –potash, uranium and helium – the province has the potential to bolster its strength as a sustainable supplier of many other natural resources essential for everyday life and modern technologies.
In total, Saskatchewan is home to 23 of the 31 critical minerals Canada identifies as essential for global economic security. These minerals are continuing to grow in importance as countries around the world increase their focus on clean
energy, food security, and the low-carbon economy.
In 2021, Saskatchewan’s mining sector generated $8.6 billion in sales and accounted for 12 per cent of provincial gross domestic product, and industry activity this year has already exceeded these notable levels. With the McArthur River uranium mine set to resume production later in 2022, and multiple projects continuing to advance, the uranium sector is well positioned to reach its $2 billion annual value of sales growth plan target by 2030.
In addition to continued success in the potash and uranium industries, the Government of Saskatchewan is focused on the diversification of the provincial minerals sector. The Targeted Mineral Exploration Incentive (TMEI) program provides a rebate to encourage drilling activity for base metals, precious metals, and diamonds in a specified geographic region of the province. Since its inception, the program has supported a total of 386 drill holes, representing over $20M in expenditures. Overall, mining companies operating in Saskatchewan invested $214 million on exploration activities in 2021, and this amount is expected to increase to $263 million during the current year.
The Government of Saskatchewan has committed $51 million for the development of the Rare Earth Processing Facility that is owned and operated by Saskatchewan Research Council. The newly expanded and fully integrated three-stage facility will be producing rare earth element products for sale to international markets by 2024. This investment is already starting to show impacts in supporting economic growth in this important sector.
The Fraser Institute ranks the province of Saskatchewan first for mining investment attractiveness in Canada, and second in the world. We offer a stable regulatory environment, competitive tax structures, world-class geoscience, skilled workforce, infrastructure, and best practices for production. We are proud of our mining industry which provides tremendous economic opportunities as well as strong corporate citizens in our province.
In 2021, the Government of Canada released a list of 31 elements considered critical for the sustainable economic success of the country and its allies, and to position Canada as the leading mining nation. The advent of renewable energy and clean technologies, essential for the transition to clean energies and decarbonization of the Canadian economy has brought critical minerals to the forefront of mineral exploration efforts across the globe, but particularly in Manitoba.
Manitoba is endowed with many critical elements, particularly lithium, which is hosted in hard rock in spodumene. Spodumene is a mineral rich in lithium and an important source of this element for use in ceramics, mobile phone and automotive batteries, medicine, and as a fluxing agent.
Manitoba is home to the Tanco mine, the only lithium-producing mine in Canada and truly a one- of-a-kind lithium deposit hosted in hard rock. Tanco is also known for its historical production and vast resources of tantalum and cesium. The Tanco mine is in the Archean Superior province (Figure 1), and the majority of
Figure 1.
the lithium mineralization at Tanco is associated with spodumene (Figure 1). The area surrounding the Tanco mine is denominated the Winnipeg River-Cat Lake pegmatite field and is laden with other granitic pegmatites that contain lithium and other critical elements (e.g., cesium, tantalum, rubidium).
Active exploration in this area is being carried out by several junior exploration companies. New Age Metals Inc. is the largest mineral claim holder in the Winnipeg River-Cat Lake pegmatite field, with three of the projects considered drill ready – Lithium One, Lithium Two and Lithman West. New Age Metals has signed an exploration agreement with the Sagkeeng First Nation and will be working in partnership with them to conduct exploration activities. QMC Quantum Minerals Corp. has been focusing its exploration efforts along the Irgon Dike, a high-grade lithium pegmatite with near-term production potential. This location is near developed infrastructure (e.g., road, rail, water, and electricity) and close to the Tanco mine, where lithium ore can be processed.
ACME Lithium Inc. has properties in
the Cat-Euclid Lake area straddling the prospective Cat-Euclid Lake shear zone and extending along the southeasterly trend of known pegmatite occurrences. Their exploration strategy includes a focus on spodumene-bearing pegmatites using remote sensing, structural geology, ground-based geological mapping, and geochemical sampling to localize targets for drilling.
In the Shatford Lake area, the claims straddle a 15-kilometre-long structural trend of the Greer-Shatford shear zone with numerous pegmatite dikes and favorable host rocks. Grid Metals Corp. holds claims for the Donner Lake Lithium property where there are four known spodumenebearing pegmatites. Results from drilling in 2018 on the Main Dyke over a strike length of 775 metres proved to be consistent with the historical drill results.
In Manitoba, within the Superior province, there is lithium associated with granitic pegmatites of similar age to Tanco at Cross Lake, God’s Lake, McLaughlin Lake, Red Cross Lake and Red Sucker Lake (Figure 2). All these locations have various degrees of lithium enrichments and mineralization.
Another area also exceptionally rich in lithium is the Wekusko Lake pegmatite field, just east of Snow Lake, in central Manitoba. This area is home to several pegmatite dikes mineralized in spodumene. The Paleoproterozoic Wekusko Lake pegmatite field is known for its multiple lithiumbearing pegmatites and prospectivity for this and other critical elements (e.g., tantalum, cesium) hosted in granitic pegmatites. This area is close to the worldclass Flin-Flon-Snow Lake mining camp that is well-known for economic deposits of gold, copper-nickel, and copper-lead.
Recent work on the Wekusko Lake pegmatite, and increasing interest from exploration companies in the area, make
this locale a prime target for exploration. The two major players in the area are Snow Lake Lithium and Foremost Lithium Resource and Technology.
Snow Lake Lithium holds the ground where the biggest known pegmatite is located, the Thompson Brothers project. This is a high-grade lithium-bearing pegmatite dike partially outcropping at surface, which remains open along strike and to depth. Snow Lake Lithium suggests that an underground mining operation accessed via ramp is a possibility for exploiting this pegmatite. The company is actively drilling this and the other pegmatites in the region.
Foremost Lithium Resource and Technology holds the largest land package in the area, consisting of the Grass River lithium, Jean Lake Lithium-Gold, the Zoro Lithium projects, and the Peg North claims. Exploration on the properties is ongoing with a drone magnetic and LiDAR surveys, prospecting, mapping, and geochemical surveys. Drilling is planned for the 2022 fall/winter seasons.
Manitoba also has the potential to host lithium dissolved in brines in subsurface aquifers. These brines are accumulations of saline groundwater that occur in continental sedimentary basins and can be a source of dissolved trace metals, including lithium. Increased concentrations of dissolved metals in brines can be associated with the oilfields (petrobrines), deep brines, salt solution-derived brines or brine springs. These occurrences are associated with the sedimentary rocks of the Phanerozoic Williston Basin in southwestern Manitoba.
Given the limited availability of lithium data in Manitoba’s saline groundwater, preliminary studies indicate that the best targets for exploration would be from the oilfield and deep brines. The mineral potential of these brines may serve as an excellent economic opportunity for oilfield operators to improve their profits and extend the life of marginal oil wells. Due to the lack of geochemical information in deep aquifers, drilling to deeper horizons – generally deeper than 1,000 metres –below the currently producing oil horizons
is required to test the potential of the deep brines. Exploration successes in Devonian-aged units in western Canada and the continuity of those aquifers and geology to the east, suggest that economic lithium brines are likely to occur in those equivalent units in Manitoba.
Both the water-producing oil wells and deep target tests would have the benefit of taking advantage of the array of infrastructure already in place for oil operations. The technology development to extract lithium from brines – such as the direct lithium extraction used by E3 Lithium – is also moving quickly,
proving to be a cost-effective, efficient extraction method that may be a game changer for the lithium industry globally.
Canada has an opportunity to become a global leader in lithium production, with Manitoba already playing a leadership role. Aligning countless rich lithium deposits and potential with the provincial government’s recent commitment to helping the province’s mining sector, our province is in a great position to respond to the increased demand for battery materials, especially lithium. ✘
The total value of mineral sales in Saskatchewan was approxi mately $8.6 billion (B) in 2021, mostly from potash, which constituted nearly 90 per cent of the total, thanks to near-record sales vol umes and steadily increasing commod ity prices. Total mineral sales value was up from $6B in 2020, $7.4B in 2019 and $7B in 2018.
After a minor COVID 19-related lull in 2020, mineral exploration and develop ment activities in Saskatchewan have rebounded back to their 10-year aver age (Figure 1). Uranium exploration continues to account for the bulk of ex
penditures, but spending on gold, base metals and critical minerals continue to be well above historic averages. Av erage expenditures on gold exploration programs over last five years, for exam ple, have more than doubled compared to the average of the previous 30-year period. Similarly, exploration for base metals and platinum group metals has resulted in spending levels three times higher than the previous 30-year aver age.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) also tracks expenditures in the min ing sector and noted that Saskatche wan-based investments will represent
about 10 per cent of the national total in 2022, behind only Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia.
The increased activity in Saskatch ewan is also reflected in the amount of land currently disposed for mineral exploration. As of September 1, 2022, Saskatchewan had issued (pursuant to The Mineral Tenure Registry Regula tions) 7,030 dispositions covering 9.45 million (M) hectares (ha), compared to 6,422 covering 7.17M ha at the same time last year. The total amount of land in Saskatchewan under disposition for minerals, potash, coal, alkali and quar riable substances is just over 12.3M ha,
or 18.9 per cent of the province’s sur face area.
Saskatchewan continues to be recog nized as a global leader for mining in vestment. Canadian public policy think tank, the Fraser Institute, in its Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2021, polled 84 globally active mining com panies to evaluate jurisdictions based on their perceived geological potential and regulatory environments. The sur vey ranked Saskatchewan first in Can ada and second globally for mining in vestment attractiveness. The identified strengths of Saskatchewan included a transparent, stable regulatory environ ment and ease of access to high-quality, pre-competitive geoscience informa tion. Saskatchewan received a similar vote of confidence from The Mining Journal, a global mining business mag azine that has been in circulation since the mid-1800s, which evaluated 106 jurisdictions for its 2021 World Risk Report and ranked Saskatchewan as the third most secure jurisdiction on its investment risk index rating. The index reflects hard risk factors such as mining codes, taxes and regulations, and infrastructure and energy security, along with public perception factors such as ease of doing business, political transparency and social stability.
The Ministry of Energy and Resources is working toward developing addi tional critical minerals found in Sas katchewan. Critical minerals are ma terials that are considered essential to the modern economy and that are subject to supply risks; they include metals, non-metals, gases and mineral compounds. Lists of critical minerals vary by country and are based on the relative importance of specific miner als to its industrial and security needs, combined with a strategic assessment of supply sources. Saskatchewan hosts occurrences of 23 of the 31 minerals identified as ‘critical’ to Canada’s nee ds.
Saskatchewan’s potash industry is ex periencing record demand, caused by high agricultural prices and supply disruptions in Russia and Belarus. This disruption has caused the market price of potash to reach record levels, al though recently, prices have been soft ening slightly. Saskatchewan potash producers have announced consider able production increases and are eval uating and planning for opportunities to invest in adding operating capability in the future. Unfortunately, due to the magnitude of the current supply dis ruption, Saskatchewan is unable to re place the gap left behind by Belarus and Russia in the near-term. Saskatchewan potash miners once again produced and sold large volumes of product last year. In 2021 Saskatchewan’s produc ers had a cumulative output totalling 22.9M tonnes (t) potassium chloride (KCl), nearly identical to the record for production set in the 2018 calendar year. In addition to high production and sales volumes, the spot price for potash continued to climb throughout 2022.
The BHP Board of Directors approved the development of the Jansen Potash Mine, which represents the largest single economic investment ever made in Saskatchewan’s mineral industry. The company has already invested ap proximately $5B on preparatory con struction and development with an additional $7.5B investment expected to bring the underground potash mine to completion. When complete the operation is expected to output 4.4Mt of potash annually with production expected to commence in 2026. West ern Potash Corp. received an $80M in vestment boost from strategic partner Vantage Chance Ltd, who is now the
largest investor in the company, hold ing a majority 54 per cent stake. The investment should largely finance the initial phase of the company’s Mile stone solution mine project, which will produce an estimated 146,000t of potash annually. Gensource Pot ash Corp continues to advance its Tugaske solution mine project, from which the company intends to pro duce up to 500 000t per year.
The Saskatchewan uranium industry – focused primarily in the Athabasca Basin region – has gone through a few tumultuous years but has recent ly turned in a much more positive direction. The McArthur River–Key Lake (operated by Cameco Corpo ration [Cameco]) and Eagle Point–Rabbit Lake (Cameco) operations remained in a state of care and main tenance throughout 2021, leaving the Cigar Lake mine (Cameco) and McClean Lake mill (Orano Canada Inc. [Orano]) as Saskatchewan’s only producing uranium operations. After falling to a 10-year low in both ura nium production and sales volumes in 2020 (10.1 and 7.5M pounds (lb) triuranium octoxide (U3O8), respec tively), Saskatchewan rebounded to produce 12.2M lb U3O8 and sold over 14.5M lb U3O8 in 2021. In 2022, 18M lb of U3O8 is expected to be produced from Cigar Lake and up to 2M lb from the McArthur River/Key Lake opera tion. Denison Mines Corp. (Denison) has received approval from the Sas katchewan Minister of Environment to construct and operate the facilities required to carry out the in-situ Re covery Feasibility Field Test planned for the Phoenix deposit at its 95 per cent owned Wheeler River project. Uranium Energy Corp. has indicated that it has created the largest diversi
fied North American focused uranium company by acquiring UEX Corpora tion. This acquisition will have an im pact on projects such as Shea Creek, Christie Lake, West Bear and RavenHorseshoe. IsoEnergy Ltd. (IsoEnergy) announced a maiden resource estimate for its Hurricane Zone on the LaRocque East Project. The company reported an Indicated Mineral Resource of 48.61M lb U3O8 at an average grade of 34.5 per cent, which includes a high-grade por tion of 43.89M lb U3O8 at an average grade of 52.1 per cent, and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 2.66M lb U3O8 at a grade of 2.2 per cent.
The spot price for uranium has contin ued to increase over the past year and the long-term outlook for the com modity remains strong, as indicated by a significant uptake in exploration activities. Approximately $75M was spent on uranium exploration in 2021, compared to $54.8M in 2020 and it is estimated that $126M will be spent in 2022, with over 30 companies now active in the sector. This resulted in numerous drilling programs and dis covery of new uranium mineralization. Baselode Energy’s shallow, basementhosted, structurally controlled ACKIO deposit, where the company has out lined continuous mineralization over a 350 metre (m) strike length, drilled multiple uranium intersections yield ing results of 7.5m at 1.67 per cent U3O8, including a 5m sub-interval of 2.45 per cent U3O8. High-grade urani um was reported by 92 Energy Ltd. for its Gemini mineralized zone (GMZ), where a 43m interval of 0.62 per cent U3O8, including sub-interval of 6m at a grade of 2.17 per cent U3O8, was inter sected.
In the east-central region of the Atha basca Basin, CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. confirmed a new area of basement-
hosted uranium mineralization at the West McArthur property; the analysis indicates nine metres of 2.4 per cent U3O8, including a 6m sub-interval at a grade of 3.5 per cent U3O8. Further to the east, and along the same conduc tive trend as IsoEnergy’s Hurricane Zone, uranium mineralization was in tersected at the Waterfound property, a joint venture between Denison, Orano and JCU Canada (JCU), which includes 5.91 per cent equivalent uranium oxide (eU3O8) over 3.9m with a sub-interval grading 25.30 per cent eU3O8 over 0.7m. At the Wheeler River project, a joint venture between Denison and JCU, new high-grade uranium miner alization was encountered outside the extents of the current resource model of Phoenix Zone A. The intersection includes 24.9 per cent eU3O8 over 4.2m at a depth of just over 400m.
In 2021 actual expenditures for dia mond exploration projects were ap proximately $25.3M. Spending in 2022 is anticipated to be $16M, pri marily focused on the Fort à la Corne (FALC) kimberlites at the Star-Orion South diamond project, a JV between Star Diamond Corp. (SDC) and Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. (RTEC), about 65 kilometres (km) east of Prince Albert.
SDC conducted a study of the diamonds that were recovered from the Star Kim berlite during the 2021 Trench Cutter program. The study revealed the pres ence of a significant proportion of Type IIa diamonds, which are defined as co lourless or near-colourless diamonds containing no nitrogen or boron im purities. Only one to two per cent of earth-grown diamonds are Type IIa and although most Type IIa diamonds are clear, there are some coloured vari eties, which are rarer still. All 10 of the largest known rough diamonds recov
ered worldwide, from the 890-carat Incomparable to the 3,106-carat Cul linan, are Type IIa diamonds.
According to the SDC study, the Star Kimberlite field contains an unusually high proportion of Type IIa diamonds and also showed a high proportion of Type IIa diamonds in both the Orion North and Taurus kimberlites, which are outside of the immediate Star and Orion South kimberlite field.
Nevertheless, in July 2022 RTEC ex ercised its voting power to place the Star – Orion South Diamond Project on care and maintenance through December 31, 2022. Rio Tinto also advised they intend to conduct a near-term review of its alternatives regarding the project, including its potential exit.
About 225 km north-northeast of the FALC project, North Arrow Minerals announced work was being under taken at the Pikoo diamond project. Results from a 2021 till sampling campaign confirmed that undiscov ered kimberlites are located within the property. The company is cur rently planning a follow up drilling program for the 2022 field season.
The Seabee gold operation, owned by SSR Mining Inc. (SSR), remained Saskatchewan’s sole gold producer in the past year. The Seabee operation comprises commercial production at the active Santoy underground mine and ore processing at the Seabee mill facility. The production at the opera tion totaled 118 888 ounces (oz) of gold (Au), which is a new record for total annual production at the mine. At year-end 2021 SSRM reported Mineral Reserves of 565 000oz AU. For 2022 SSR Mining had anticipated to produce 115,000 to 125,000oz AU
at an all-in sustainable cost of $895 to $945/oz in 2022. One of the main re source development areas for the See bee gold operation is the expansion and definition of the Santoy Gap Hang ing Wall.
Total gold exploration expenditure for 2021 was $23.1M, nearly double the $14.4M reported in 2020. In April 2022 SSR announced that it completed the acquisition of Taiga Gold Corp. (Taiga), a transaction that consolidated a 100 per cent interest in the Fisher property contiguous to the Seabee mine. SSR’s Saskatchewan assets now cover an area of approximately 132,520ha. At SKRR Exploration Inc. (SKRR) a drill pro gram intersected gold mineralization in ten holes at the Manson Bay. On the Olson property, Eagle Plains Resources Ltd., and JV partner SKRR intersected gold mineralization in nine of 10 drill holes, with highlights including 1.62 grams per tonne (g/t) Au over 8.1m and 0.95g/t over 6.8m.
In the La Ronge Gold Belt area, MAS Gold Corp. (MAS) released 2021 Min eral Resource estimates for the North Lake and Greywacke North gold de posits. North Lake is estimated to contain an Inferred Mineral Resource of 18.1Mt grading 0.85 g/t Au. Grey wacke North has a combined open-pit and underground Indicated Mineral Resource of 645,000t averaging 4.90 g/t Au for 101 000 in-situ ounces of contained gold and an additional In ferred Mineral Resource of 410,000t averaging 4.12g/t Au for 55,000 in-situ ounces of gold. MAS also provided preliminary assay results from its drill ing program at its Preview North Proj ect, which includes the Preview South west deposit, highlights include 99.0m grading 1.00g/t Au and 84m grading 0.61g/t Au.
In the Flin Flon-Creighton area,
Searchlight Resources Inc. is compiling drill hole data for its Robinson Creek gold project, and in the Uranium City area, Fortune Bay Corp. announced it would commence a two-phase eco nomic assessment of its Goldfields project.
In April 2022 Foran Mining Corpora tion released a technical report on the feasibility study for the McIlvenna Bay Copper-Zinc deposit, located south of Hanson Lake about 85km west of Flin Flon. The report outlines a pre-tax Net Present Value of $1.49B and an inter nal rate of return of 46 per cent with payback period of 2.2 years. Probable Mineral Reserves on the project now total 25.7Mt at 2.51 per cent copper equivalent (CuEq). Foran has received
approvals to commence construction of an exploration decline at the site, where the proposed mine plan calls for a 4,200t/day throughput rate and a projected 18.4-year mine life. Av erage annual production is forecast at 72.8M lb CuEq over the first 15 years equating to 38.8M lb copper (Cu), 63.6M lb zinc, 20,000oz Au and 486,000oz of silver. Foran continues to push ahead as an ESG pioneer (environment, social and corporate governance), with plans to create Saskatchewan’s first carbon neutral mining operation.
Foran also released results from its newly discovered “Tesla” zone, which is located 300m north of the McIl venna Bay deposit and is reported to contain 200m of continuous mas
sive and disseminated sulphides. Some highlighted assay results from the dis covery hole returned 1.8 per cent CuEq over 12.4m, which included a highergrade section of 8.3 per cent CuEq over 1.2m. Additional intersects of 7.71m at 1.7 per cent CuEq and 5.40m at 3.3 per cent CuEq were also reported, and these mineralized intervals occur be tween 866m and 960m drilled depth.
In addition, Foran announced explora tion results from the Bigstone-Lime stone lakes area, located circa 20km west of the McIlvenna deposit. The Bigstone deposit currently hosts an es timated Indicated Resource of 1.98Mt grading 2.22 per cent CuEq and an additional Inferred Resource of 1.88 Mt grading 2.14 per cent CuEq. Over the past year, some 15 drill holes, to taling 6,130m, were completed to ex pand known zones and to complete infill-drilling to upgrade the current re
source categories. In addition, a sum mer 2022 drill program was planned at the Marconi geophysical target, which is located just east of the Bigstone de posit, and was projected to consist of seven holes totaling 3,000m.
Rockridge Resources Ltd. has complet ed the earn-in option from Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. and now has 100 per cent ownership of the Knife Lake cop per project. UEX filed an updated tech nical report for its West Bear cobaltnickel (Co, Ni) project located in the eastern Athabasca Basin. The report lists an Indicated Resource of 295,000t at a grade of 0.58 per cent Co and 0.49 per cent Ni for contained metals of 3.763M lb Co and 3.164M lb Ni. Forum Energy Metals Corp. (Forum) and joint venture partner Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC) continued an explora tion program in the Janice Lake region of the east-central Wollaston Domain.
The partners drilled 39 holes across four target zones (Janice, Jansem, Kaz and Rafuse) and intersected copper mineralization with grades greater than one per cent Cu from surface to a depth of 260m. RTEC has now spent over $14M in exploration, exceeding the $10M required to earn a 51 per cent interest in the property, although a cash payment is also still needed. Forum also continues to evaluate the Love Lake Ni-Cu-Pd project, where the company previously intersected 13.5m grading 0.56 per cent Cu, 0.06 per cent Ni, five parts per billion (ppb) platinum and 14 ppb palladium.
In the Flin Flon / Creighton area, Hud bay Minerals Inc. announced that af ter 18 years of continuous production from the 777 mine, it had concluded operations during summer 2022. The shutdown means that, for the first time since the 1930s, Flin Flon will have no
active mines operating close to the community. The company’s hydromet allurgical zinc facility in Flin Flon will also be closed, however, the concentra tor and tailings impoundment area will be shifted to care and maintenance, which could provide optionality should another mineral discovery occur in the Flin Flon area.
Monazite-rich mineralization near Al ces Lake, initially discovered by J.H. Wilson in 1954, 35km east-northeast of Uranium City, has been actively worked since 2014 by Appia Rare Earths & Ura nium Corp. (Appia). At present, Appia has identified high-grade rare earth el ement (REE), near-surface mineraliza tion over a 27-square-kilometre area, and new discoveries continue to be made. So far in 2022 Appia has drilled 17 481m, including further delineation drilling on the high-grade mineraliza tion of the combined Wilson-Rich ard-Charles-Bell (WRCB) zone and previously undrilled monazite targets at Danny and Wilson/Wilson North. Gallium, a “critical mineral” used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and optoelectronic devices, has also been reported in significant concentra tions in monazite-rich mineralization, reaching up to 0.1 per cent gallium oxide (Ga2O3). Electron microprobe analyses of monazite previously re ported by Appia identified up to 0.185 per cent Ga2O3 in single crystals. Drill ing also focused on the Magnet Ridge (formerly Augier) and Magnet Ridge West targets and included 44 holes, to taling 7344m. Two of the most notable intercepts included of 6.99m of 11.70 weight per cent total rare earth oxide (TREO) and 3.19m of 15.38 weight per cent TREO.
Lithium exploration in Saskatchewan continues to be primarily focused in southern Saskatchewan. In 2021 the
primary activity was the continued the acquisition of permits. Since 2019, 540,800ha of land, located in the Este van-Weyburn area and in the Kinders ley area, have been acquired. To date, sub-surface mineral public offerings, which target minerals including lithi um, have raised $6.9M in revenue for the Government of Saskatchewan.
In September 2022, Prairie Lithium announced that they acquired an ad ditional three wells in the southeastern part of the province from a Saskatche wan-based oil producer. The wells were set to be abandoned due to their lim ited oil production. This brings up their total well count to eight.
The helium industry continues to grow in Saskatchewan. In 2021 it was esti mated that Saskatchewan produced al most 1.9 per cent of the world’s helium, with the total volume coming from six wells located in the southwestern cor ner of the province. As of August 2022, the actively producing well count was 13; monthly production had also in creased steadily since the start of the
year, rising from 145,500 cubic metres (m3) to 210,700 m3. Helium was ex tracted via multi-well purifiers located at Mankota (Township 5 Range 8W3) and Battle Creek (Township 3 Range 27 W3) and from single well purifiers located at Cypress (Township 5 Range 26W3) and Wilhelm (Township 17 Range 14 W3).
Currently over 7M ha have been leased or permitted for helium and are pri marily located in southwestern Sas katchewan. North American Helium continues its helium exploration pro gram in the Mankota and Cypress Hills regions, acquiring tens of thousands of kilometres of seismic data and com pleting multiple wells to depths of up to 2,800m, many of which have been cored. Royal Helium Ltd. has 10 claim blocks in southwestern to southeastern Saskatchewan and has drilled explora tion wells near Climax. In June 2022, Global Helium Corp. announced that it had increased its land holdings in Saskatchewan to 1.7M ha. Helium Evo lution has acquired over 750km of 2D seismic in the Mankota area and have recently drilled two wells. ✘
By now, it is a foregone conclusion that for net-zero to be achieved, the increased adoption of low-carbon tech nologies is essential, with mining propelling the cur rent seismic energy transition. Electric cars cannot ex ist without lithium, nickel, and cobalt; nuclear energy without uranium; and wind turbines and solar panels without copper, zinc, iron, and steel making coal.
The enhanced understanding that mining has a significant role to play in the green tech revolution has led Canadians to show greater enthusiasm than ever before for the industry. In fact, in polling recently completed by Abacus Data, support was found to be at an all time high, with 80 per cent reporting that they have a positive feeling about producers of minerals and metals in Canada and 84 per cent giving mining companies in Canada a good or acceptable performance in contributing new materials for use in greener and cleaner technologies.
This broad support may surprise many, but the reality is that Canada’s mining sector is widely considered to be a global leader in its commitment to strong ESG standards and com munity engagement, with made-in-Canada standards like Towards Sustainable Mining being adopted by mining cham bers, including heavyweights like Australia and Brazil, around the world.
What is clear is that this public support hinges in large part on mining companies making commitments to lower their environmental footprint and seeing them through. Polling found that 83 per cent say they would like to see more mining projects in Canada provided they have a plan to reduce GHG emissions. While mining has always been an energy-intensive industry, there has been a surge of innovation recently for Ca nadian mining companies to deliver these critical materials with sustainability and commitment to climate action, like use of renewable energy or decarbonizing equipment used on mining sites, at the forefront. The fact is, as one of the lowest carbon-intensity producers of mineral and metal products in the world, Canada fulfils the need for mined materials better than most competing mining jurisdictions.
For our goal of a greener future to come to fruition, we need metals and minerals, in enormous quantities. And for that to happen, more mines need to be developed. At present, from initial discovery to first breaking ground, a mining project in Canada takes on average 10 to 15 years before production can even commence, a massive impediment to our ability to be the mining powerhouse the world needs.
Industry is not alone in its concerns about being able to sup ply these critical materials. In late June, the Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, stated that the “average mine takes 15 years to bring into production, and in the context of the energy transition, we don’t have 15 years if we’re actually going to provide enough of the minerals to be able to support just the battery development.”
We agree – this timeline does not line up with the urgency of the global need and is a competitive disadvantage for Ca nadian mining companies when stacked up against other in ternational leaders with far lesser ESG credentials and labour standards.
While recent commitments – specifically, those focused on critical minerals in the last Federal Budget – are positive, there’s no doubt that our sector continues to face challenges when fulfilling the demand for our products, not only by com panies within Canada but also by our allies. Support for our industry is strong, with leaders like Prime Minister Trudeau and premiers from coast to coast to coast speaking to the importance of Canadian mining and critical minerals to lowcarbon tech; but more action is needed to first get these mines off the ground.
In times of growing international uncertainty and supply chain issues, the world needs more Canadian mining, and strides forward must be made to ensure the sector can pro vide a secure and stable supply of the minerals and metals essential to Canadians, our allies, and businesses around the world. Canadians have voiced their support, and the clean tech and auto industries are counting on us to deliver – now is the time to follow through. ✘
Mineral exploration continues to grow as more compa nies strive to build respectful and long-lasting rela tionships with First Nations people regarding land and treat rights. And while there’s still progress to be made, it’s encouraging that organizations are recognizing the benefits of developing partnerships to create and implement effective Aboriginal engagement strategies.
Robert Houle is president and co-founder of Talon Resources and Community Development, a company based at Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation in Kenora, Ont. that was incorporated in 2016 to assist First Nations wishing to get involved in the resource sector. He recently spoke about Aboriginal Engagement and Permitting at a Manitoba Prospectors & Developers Association meeting and walked attendees through the process.
“Permitting in the mining industry is a provincial way of allowing proponents to do exploration work. It’s essentially a license to begin looking for work for minerals. Aboriginal engagement is about looking into and discussing what the proponent wants to do – and if the community has any issues or land values in the area.”
The current and formal process of Aboriginal Engagement and Permitting is actually only a decade old. It was the result of a major court case in Ontario, which was instrumental to Aboriginal people asserting their rights to be in full consultation. And that’s where consultation and accommodation was born from.
“Prior to that, there was not a lot of First Nations engagement required,” says Houle. “It’s important that their land rights are respected, traditional lands are not destroyed, and that toxins are not left in the grounds. And, also to keep pits clear and the clear cutting of forests. This Mining Act being put into place is a result of everything coming to a head.”
MaryAnn Mihychuk, president of the Manitoba Prospectors & Developers Association, agrees and adds that hundreds of court cases in Canada have set new standards and requirements in the resource sectors, and it is especially important for the mineral exploration industry.
“It’s clear Indigenous rights must be respected and those that want to work on traditional lands must have an engagement plan based on respect and understanding. Every exploration project now needs acceptance from both the province (in the form of various permits) and the First Nations of the area.”
As with any agreement, there are pros and cons. For instance, Mihychuk says the main benefits of this engagement is a positive relationship between the First Nation and company.
“For the First Nations, it can mean a real say in land management as well as potential for economic benefits. For the company, it means access to the ground and potentially a business partner.”
As for cons, one of the problems is that engagement is understood differently by almost everyone and expectations vary accordingly. This can cause misunderstanding and result in a breakdown of trust.
“Every exploration project now needs acceptance from both the province (in the form of various permits) and the First Nations of the area.”
— MaryAnn Mihychuk, MPDA president
“Improvements in the form of government support is needed so First Nations can, for example, engage a knowledgeable mineral sector expert to assess the scope of the project and advise the decision makers on the opportunity,” she explains.
Houle agrees and adds, “There are always improvements, but until the government decides to make some serious commitments and changes, the key is for proponents to work diligently and have meaningful agreements with the First Nations. That will drive change.”
He stresses that these agreements are not a one size fits all. Rather, they are a typical standard agreement for early exploration stages, which just tells the community that they will have meaningful employment and will be notified of activity in the area.
“And if there are any issues that First Nations may have with regard to significant values, burial sites, trapping rights, the company will definitely work with them to come to a resolution.”
As for what the next two to five years holds for the mining industry, Mihychuk says exploration and supply companies will continue to partner with First Nations.
“The Province of Manitoba will also step up and formally partner with Indigenous Nations, with resource revenue sharing as in Ontario and BC.”
Houle says that it’s difficult to see a shift right now, but as the exploration process moves along, there will be different stages. “For instance, you have staking of the land and then prospecting, which goes into exploration—if a company wishes to do this. Then there is advanced exploration, which triggers a more meaningful discussion and another agreement. From that stage, that is when the exploration companies are typically bought out by major mining companies.”
Houle adds that what’s happening right now is that government
is allowing anyone with a stake, claim, or Indigenous background to have a seat at the table with the proponents, which is great. But what must be understood is that these companies have limited funds, so government is essentially driving a lot of these groups to go elsewhere or close their doors.
“Originally it was Section 35 which allowed First Nations. Now it is the Metis that are getting their place at the table, which is fine. But the government must deal with that and not tell the proponent to deal with them. It’s going to come to a head soon – I can see it.” ✘
“Aboriginal engagement is about looking into and discussing what the proponent wants to do, and if the community has any issues or land values in the area.”
— Robert Houle, president and co-founder of Talon Resources and Community Development
Rockcliff Metals (CSE: RCLF; US-OTC: RKCLF) is one of the largest junior landholders in the prolific Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt of central Mani toba, Canada, controlling 25 proper ties totalling 3,623 square kilometres. The company’s philosophy is to acquire, discover, and grow high-grade copper resources that can become low-cost high margin near-surface volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits with ramp access. The VMS deposits host high-grade copper and zinc, as well as gold and silver.
The company’s flagship properties host NI 43-101 compliant resources at its Tower, Rail, Bur, and Talbot deposits centered in the Snow Lake region of Manitoba. Rockcliff owns a 100 per cent
interest in the Tower, Rail, and Bur De posits and a 49 per cent interest in the Talbot Deposit. All deposits have road access and can be drilled year-round with excellent additional infrastructure within trucking distances to two oper ating mills and tailing facilities.
Recently, Rockcliff completed a Pre liminary Economic Assessment on the Tower and Rail Deposits that identi fied robust economics with an after-tax IRR of 67 per cent and NPV₈ of C$128 million using US$3.76/lb copper and US$1.26/lb zinc. With an initial un derground 10-year mine life, cap-ex of C$81 million, pay back within 12 months and 16 months to first produc tion, the high-grade deposits are open for potential expansion and remain at tractive targets for future growth.
The Tower Deposit has an indicated resource of 1.711 million tonnes grad ing 3.3 per cent copper, one per cent zinc, 0.7 g/t gold and 16.5 g/t silver (4.2 per cent copper-equivalent). Ad ditionally, the deposit has an inferred
resource of 0.5 million tonnes grading 1.7 per cent copper, 1.2 per cent zinc, 0.2 g/t gold and 8.4 g/t silver (2.1 per cent copper-equivalent). The Tower Deposit has a strike length of 1,000 me tres, starts at a depth of 120 metres and has been tested to 750 metres vertical where it remains open. Recent dis coveries of high-grade nickel-platinum group metals (PGM) mineralization (TGR Ni-PGM Prospect) were identi fied only 600 metres south of the Tower Deposit and remain an intriguing target for exploration. Multiple airborne and surface geophysical targets remain to be tested along a 12.5-kilometre-long favorable rock package that also hosts the Tower Deposit.
The Rail Deposit has an indicated re source of 2.053 million tonnes grading 1.9 per cent copper, 0.6 per cent zinc, 0.6 g/t gold and 6.1 g/t silver (2.3 per cent copper-equivalent). Additionally, the deposit has an inferred resource of 1.079 million tonnes grading 2.1 per cent copper, 0.7 per cent zinc, 0.9 g/t gold and 7.6 g/t silver (2.7 per cent cop per-equivalent). The Rail Deposit has a strike length of approximately 1,000 metres, starts at surface and has been tested to approximately 700 metres. The deposit remains open along strike to the south and at depth.
The Bur Deposit has a measured and indicated resource of 3.017 million tonnes grading 1.7 per cent copper, 6.1 per cent zinc, 0.05g/t gold and 13.0 g/t silver (3.9 per cent copper equiva lent). Additionally, the deposit has an inferred resource of 2.342 million tonnes grading 1.0 per cent copper, 8.7 per cent zinc, and 4.5 g/t silver (four per cent copper equivalent). The de posit has been drilled intermittently along a strike length of approximately 1,500 metres and to a depth of 900 me tres. The VMS corridor hosting the Bur Deposit continues on the property a distance of over 8,000 metres where potential exists for additional VMS dis coveries.
The Talbot deposit, which is 49 per cent
owned by Rockcliff, has an indicated resource of 2.194 million tonnes grad ing 2.3 per cent copper, 1.8 per cent zinc, 2.1 g/t gold and 36 g/t silver (4.4 per cent copper-equivalent). Addi tionally, the deposit has an inferred resource of 2.445 million tonnes grad ing 1.1 per cent copper, 1.7 per cent zinc, 1.9 g/t gold and 25.8 g/t silver (three per cent copper-equivalent). The deposit remains open in all direc tion. Hudbay Minerals Inc. owns 51 per cent of the Talbot Property and is the Joint Venture Operator. In the
event that Talbot goes into production and Rockcliff contributes its pro-rata share of pre-construction capital, it will retain a 35 per cent carried inter est in the project through the life of mine.
Rockcliff continues to be active on the exploration front and is preparing for a very active winter drill program in 2023. A minimum 7,000 metres drill program will test VMS targets at the company’s Copperman, Bur, Penex, Lon and SLS properties. ✘
Foremost Lithium Resource and Technology has under gone a few changes recently, including updating their name from Far Resources Ltd. to the aforementioned, as well as a new board of directors and staff members.
The company is a hard-rock exploration company strategically located to capitalize on the world’s growing EV appetite with a primary focus on its five lithium lane projects in Snow Lake, Manitoba. It also has its Hidden Lake Lithium Project in the Northwest Territories, and its Winston Silver/Gold Project in New Mexico.
Dr. Mark Fedikow, Vice-President of Exploration, says Foremost Lithium has acquired highly prospective properties (referred to as “tier one”), such as Peg North, Jean Lake, Grass River, and Zoro.
“Peg North is the largest property we have,” Fedikow says. Peg North encapsulates the northeast extension of the Crowduck Bay Fault, which is the key metal genetic feature in Snow Lake geology for spodumene-bearing and barren pegmatite. The property also covers the northeastern trend of the Thompson Brothers Lithium Deposit (TBL).
The Jean Lake property hosts the high-grade “beryl” pegmatite, originally discovered by Sherritt Gordon Mines in 1942 and re discovered in 2021 by Foremost prospector Jake Ziehlke. Grab samples from the Beryl pegmatite assayed as high as 5.17 per cent Li2O.
“We have been actively exploring Jean Lake this past summer with an integrated program of UAV-assisted magnetic surveys, Mobile Metal Ions soil geochemistry, and boots-on-the-ground
prospecting,” Fedikow says.
“Targets identified from our integrated exploration approach on the Jean Lake property will be drill-tested this year. We will also drill test targets developed on the Jean Lake property that appear to be related to the southwest extension of the trend line from the Thompson Brothers Deposit. Our LiDAR and UAV-magnet ic work strongly suggest the TBL trend crosscuts the Crowduck Bay Fault and intersects the Jean Lake property.”
The Grass River property hosts 10 large exposed and underex plored pegmatites. There are also seven drill-indicated spodu mene pegmatites that were intersected by drilling in 1956 as a re sult of drill testing conductors related to base metal exploration in the area. Basically, they were discovered by accident. “We’ll likely follow up on those in 2023,” Fedikow says.
The Zoro project’s Dyke 1 has an inferred resource of 1.07 mil lion tonnes at 0.91 per cent Li2O. There are also 15 additional dykes on the Zoro property with spodumene (some more than others), most of which have been tested by only one drill hole. The drone magnetic survey has been completed, and Foremost Lithium is currently working with EarthEx Geophysical Solu tions Inc. on data interpretation.
All eyes are focused on Snow Lake as the hub of battery metals. Snow Lake historically has always been a pro-mining commu nity, and Foremost’s properties are accessible with year-round access along powerlines and major road and railway routes. Ad jacent with and comparable in scale and grade as their neigh bour, Snow Lake Lithium’s project (11 million tons at one per cent Li2O), Foremost Lithium is looking forward to all upcoming exploration and drill programs. ✘
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This year, the Saskatchewan Re search Council’s (SRC) Geoana lytical Laboratories is celebrat ing 50 years of service providing high-quality analysis to the exploration and mining industry. The laboratory offers geochemical and mineralogical analysis with expertise in base metals, gold, lithium, uranium, potash, rare earth elements, and diamonds.
As Saskatchewan’s resource industries have grown over the last five decades from uranium into diamonds, potash, gold and more, the services the lab of fers have expanded to match the needs of its clients and various industries.
“At the lab, we provide chemical analy sis for exploration and mining compa nies, as well as other services, such as mineral identification and mineralogi cal services,” says Rob Millar, manager of SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories. This includes multi-element geochemical analysis by inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and opti cal emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), trace-element analysis and other meth ods, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), QEMSCAN® analysis, thin sectioning, and electron microprobe analysis.
With a wide range of services comes an even broader range of expertise. The lab
employs technicians, geochemists, and scientists, many of whom have worked in the mining industry for decades.
A steadfast commitment to provid ing high-quality data, developing new methods of analysis, and putting clients’ needs at the forefront is what drives the lab’s success. SRC also believes to be successful, new initiatives must be ad opted to align with industry needs.
In December 2021, SRC’s Mining and Minerals Division consolidated into one purpose-built facility to serve its clients more effectively – a move that included Geoanalytical Laboratories. The new location provides more op
portunities to continue expanding SRC’s services and capabilities.
The new facility provides the Geoanalyti cal Lab with more space to improve sam ple flow and reduce turnaround time for clients. Also in 2021, the lab expanded its capacity for gold and precious metal fire assay by 400 per cent.
To round out the recent changes, the lab has added a mineral characterization service, which provides mining and ex ploration clients the ability to test their ores’ amenability to sorting and choose the appropriate type of equipment or sensor for sorting.
It is examples like these that keep SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories ahead of the curve and will continue to help them to successfully adapt to industry change and growth in the future.
While it’s difficult to say exactly what that future might look like for the mining industry, there are trends and projections that will have significant impacts.
“There will be many challenges for the mining and mineral exploration indus try over the next 50 years, and climate change will be one of them,” says Mil lar. The lab is continuously looking for new technologies to reduce its climate impact, such as installing acid scrubber fume hoods. The next phase for indus try in mineral exploration is looking for deposits that are deeper and undercover.
There are many new analytical tech niques being developed for lower-level detection of mineralization at greater depths.
The past 50 years at SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories has shown notable achieve ments in the evolution of geochemistry and mineralogy that have helped clients with their mineral exploration and min ing operations. With an eye on new tech nologies and their finger on the pulse of industry, it’ll be exciting to see what the lab can achieve in the coming decades.
Read the full article and more stories like this on SRC’s blog at src.sk.ca/blog. ✘
Our fleet of Bell 212, Bell 407, Bell 206L3 and Bell 206B Helicopters are ready to work!
ACME Lithium (CSE: ACME) (OTCQX: ACLHF) is a mineral exploration com pany focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing battery metal projects in partnership with leading technology and commodity companies.
At ACME, the building blocks of the fu ture are our focus today. We own 100 per cent interest in 37 mineral claims total ling approximately 6,882 hectares in the Bird River Greenstone Belt in southeast ern Manitoba. Those claims translate to lithium mining and extraction in a mar ket that is set to witness explosive growth in the coming years.
Our three projects in the pegmatite fields of southeastern Manitoba straddle the northern and southern limbs of the Bird River Greenstone Belt (BRGB). The BRGB is known to contain at least 10 pegmatite fields and host hundreds of in dividual pegmatite bodies, of which many are classified as complex rare-element Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) peg matites.
Pegmatites are associated with granitic intrusions into structurally dilatant zones adjacent to major east-west shear zones in both limbs of the BRGB. Worldwide,
LCT pegmatite deposits account for around a quarter of the world’s lithium production, most of the tantalum pro duction, and all the cesium production.
In December 2021, ACME staked 21 claims totalling approximately 3,595 hectares in the Shatford Lake pegmatite field and six claims totalling 1,185 hect ares in the Cat-Euclid Lake shear zone. Most recently, in September 2022, we staked 10 claims totalling approximately 2,102 hectares situated near Birse Lake, contiguous and directly east of ACME’s Shatford Lake project area.
Located approximately 165 kilometres east of Winnipeg, ACME’s Shatford Lake and Birse Lake projects are located stra tegically and contiguous to the south of Sinomine’s world class Tanco Mine – a Lithium, Cesium and Tantalum (LCT) producer since 1969. Our Cat-Euclid Lake project is located about 35 kilome tres further north.
The Shatford Lake claims straddle a 15-kilometres-long structural trend of the Greer-Shatford Shear Zone with nu merous pegmatite dykes and favorable host rocks. The northeast corner of the project’s ground abuts the Mineral Lease of the Tanco Mine, and the south shore of Bernic Lake with the Buck, Pelgi, and Dibs pegmatites nearby.
ACME’s Cat-Euclid Lake claims straddle the prospective Cat-Euclid Lake shear zone and extend along the southeasterly trend of known pegmatite occurrences. Australia’s Mineral Resources Limited (MRL), one of the world’s leading lithium producers with a market capitalization of over AUD$8 billion recently signed a joint venture agreement with Lithium Canada Development (New Age Metals Inc.) to the west of ACME’s Cat-Euclid Lake lith ium project.
Our Birse Lake claim block covers the Birse Lake pluton that has numerous peg matite occurrences along its periphery. The project claim area has been filed with the Manitoba government and is subject to review and processing.
ACME is wrapping up an extensive summer exploration program at both Cat-Euclid and Shatford Lakes employ ing remote sensing, structural geology, ground-based geological mapping, and geochemical sampling to localize targets for drilling. Our exploration focus is on spodumene-bearing LCT pegmatites that are a source for high-quality lithium that can be converted to lithium carbonate.
At both projects, crews have focused on areas with abundant outcrop in favour able structural areas. Work has involved soil, rock sampling, and structural map ping to identify areas favored to host peg matite bodies. An airborne geophysics survey was carried out by Dias Airborne with their state-of-the-art QMAGT sys tem and is currently being processed and evaluated. Commencement of a projectwide drill program is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2022, subject to permit ting and access to drilling equipment and crews.
ACME is in the right place at the right time. There is rapid growth in the battery metals market, and demand for lithium is surging as Canadian and US governments actively focus on building a domestic lithium sup ply chain with North American automak ers to produce electric vehicles. With our three projects in Manitoba and another two found in a highly prospective region for lithium production in Clayton Valley
and Fish Lake Valley, Nevada, ACME aims to power the energy revolution.
Backed by an experienced management team who have successfully built and fi nanced resource companies around the world, we are well funded by strategic investors and positioned to advance our exploration and development objectives through the near term. The future starts here. ✘
and other related business opportuni ties.
This strategy and its focus on maximiz ing risk-adjusted value per share for exist ing shareholders is likely a key reason to Foran’s relative outperformance despite current volatile markets, which could also be a good sign when the cycle eventually turns upwards.
In northern Saskatchewan, there’s a company de-risking a growing criti cal metals deposit with a goal to build building the mine of the future. Fo ran Mining (TSX.V: FOM) (OTCQX: FMCXF) and its flagship McIlvenna Bay copper-zinc-gold-silver deposit are on a path to establish a true Canadian critical metals champion and target carbon-neu tral production using sustainable mining practices.
What sets Foran apart is a three-pillar strategy:
1) Delivering initial phase production at McIlvenna Bay;
2) Unlocking the untapped value of its properties with systematic explora tion; and
3) Its net-positive business, focusing on carbon-neutral critical metal produc tion to support a decarbonizing world
In February 2022, Foran announced re sults from its Initial Phase Feasibility Study highlighting an 18.4-year mine life producing 65.4 million pounds copper equivalent at all-in sustaining costs of $0.90/lb (net of by-product credits). At current commodity prices, the feasibil ity study defines a ~C$0.8 billion pre-tax NPV seven per cent. What makes the project even more exciting is the mine life extension opportunities through the drill bit. The McIlvenna Bay deposit remains open at depth and along strike, while cur rent exploration focus is on near-mine and regional targets to drive more imme diate value to shareholders.
Establishing a True Canadian Critical Metals Champion in the heart of Saskatchewan, Canada.
We believe that environmentally conscious land use, the creation of circular economies in local communities and the use of renewable energy, battery electric vehicles and leading edge technology, all provide superior returns on investment in the long term.
Our goal is to be a net positive community partner delivering critical resources to support global decarbonization. We want our children and future generations to look back on our efforts with pride.
Follow our progress as we create a new blueprint for the future of mining.
See the great opportunities to join our dynamic team at https://foranmining.com/careers/
ir@foranmining.com
Follow us on social media @ForanMining www.foranmining.com
Foran is still in the early stages of explor ing its vast 1,472-square-kilometre land package. McIlvenna Bay is a volcanichosted massive sulphide (VHMS) de posit, which typically occur in clusters. At other VHMS camps in Canada, there has been 10 to 21 times more drilling and two to 15 times more resources defined, providing material opportunity for future discoveries across Foran’s properties.
Exploration upside was recently show cased by the new discovery of its Tesla target, located just 300 metres from the McIlvenna Bay deposit. Recent drill in tercept highlights include 6.2 per cent copper equivalent over 11.9 metres, and one per cent CuEq over 17.2 me tres. Geophysical modelling highlights a 900-metre strike by 300-metre-wide con ductor, with true widths estimated to be
25 to 50 metres. This sizeable, near-mine opportunity is just one across a vast can vas of targets on its properties. Foran’s ex ploration strategy is working as they suc cessfully unlock this prolific district on its path towards building Canada’s next great mining camp.
Foran’s ethos is to be a net-positive com munity partner delivering critical re sources to support global decarboniza tion. Part of this strategy includes its goal to produce carbon-neutral critical met als. At McIlvenna Bay, carbon neutrality could be achieved in part by using power from renewable energy sources, mining with electric vehicles, and treating ore with environmentally conscious meth ods, in addition to other new technolo gies to reduce carbon emissions. Copper and zinc are critical elements of the elec trification revolution, and Foran exem
plifies a strong belief toward sustainable mining practices that are central to the viability of a decarbonized future.
Foran’s three-pronged strategy has been successful in attracting some notable long-term investors. In August 2021, Fo ran completed a C$100 million private placement with Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Holdings Ltd. More recently, in August 2022 Foran announced that it entered into a non-binding term sheet with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, for a proposed investment for up to $200 million. Foran continues to de-risk McIl venna Bay, explore is vast canvas of op portunities, all while pioneering an op erating approach tailored to community prosperity and superior returns. ✘
Snow Lake Resources Ltd. hosted LG Energy Solution in Manitoba in September to explore the po tential next step toward building a domestic supply chain for the North American electric vehicle market.
The visit by LG Energy Solution advances the collaboration with Snow Lake Lithi um which will see the delivery of one of Canada’s first lithium hydroxide process ing plants at CentrePort Canada in South ern Manitoba. Manitoba Hydro was also included in the discussions regarding the provision of sustainable, clean power to the plant in addition to a site visit to the proposed facility.
Meetings held at the Manitoba Legisla tive Building included participation from Snow Lake Lithium and LGES represen tatives, as well as Jordan Gaw and Jenny
Kang from Invest in Canada and Cliff Cullen, the Deputy Premier and Minis ter of Economic Development, Indus try and Trade. Representatives from the Economic Secretariat of Manitoba, the Department of Economic Development, Industry and Trade, and Manitoba’s Chamber of Commerce were also pres ent.
“Companies such as LG Energy Solution and Snow Lake Lithium are leading the exploration and development of critical minerals that will be key to helping the world pursue the goal of decarbonisa tion,” Deputy Premier Cullen comment ed. “Manitoba has the mineral, energy, and human resources needed to help meet growing global demand, and we are very excited that LG Energy Solution and Snow Lake Lithium have recognized the
potential of Manitoba as a great place to invest. Our government is committed to ensuring that Manitoba is a great place to invest and grow the industries that will lead the energy transition that is trans forming the world.”
“The visit was a great success, and there’s an exceptional opportunity here in Mani toba to establish a strong domestic sup ply chain for the US automobile industry,” Snow Lake Lithium CEO Philip Gross said. “Following our exciting collaboration with world-leading LG Energy Solution, we are confident that our rock to road bat tery supply chain will help the electric ve hicle market in North America.”
With its rich minerals and metals sector
ecosystem, Canada is globally recognized as a world-leader in the mining industry. Its commitment to producing minerals in the right way – both protecting the en vironment and ensuring local indigenous communities’ benefit – is unparalleled.
Canada is a natural location for invest ment in critical minerals essential to re newable energy, clean technology, and
advanced manufacturing supply chains. Canada is the only country in the West ern Hemisphere that has all the critical minerals required for EV batteries, in cluding lithium.
By 2025, Canada is expected to rank third in the global production of the raw materials needed for electric vehicle bat teries.
Based in Manitoba, Snow Lake Lithium is developing the world’s first all-electric lithium mine to enable domestic sup ply of this critical resource to the North American electric vehicle industry.
Manitoba has a rich history of mining, giving Snow Lake Lithium access to some of the most talented and experi enced miners in North America. Snow Lake Lithium is ideally located to serve the North American automotive indus try with access to the US rail network via the Artic Gateway railway, which reduces transportation from thousands of miles by road and boat to just several hundred by train.
Snow Lake Lithium’s 55,000-acre site is expected to produce 160,000 tonnes of six per cent lithium spodumene a year over a 10-year period, enough to power 5 million electric vehicles. Currently, the company has explored approximately one per cent of its site and is confident that further exploration will increase es timates over the course of the next year.
Snow Lake Lithium’s planned mine will be operated by almost 100 per cent re newable, hydroelectric power to ensure the most sustainable lithium manufac turing approach.
Over the coming months, Snow Lake Lithium will continue its engineer ing evaluation and drilling programme across its site, with the expectation that mining operations will transition to commercial production targeted for 2025.
Snow Lake Lithium is committed to creating and operating a fully renew able and sustainable lithium mine that can deliver a completely traceable, car bon neutral, and zero-harm product to the North American electric vehicle and battery markets.
Our wholly owned Thompson Brothers
Lithium Project now covers a 55,318-acre site that has only been one per cent ex plored and contains an identified-to-date 11.1 million metric tonnes indicated and inferred resource at one per cent Li2O.
LG Energy Solution (KRX: 373220), a split-off from LG Chem, is a leading glob al manufacturer of lithium-ion batter ies for electric vehicles, mobility, IT, and energy storage systems. With 30 years of experience in revolutionary battery technology and extensive research and development (R&D), the company is the top battery-related patent holder in the world with over 24,000 patents. Its ro bust global network, which spans North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, includes battery manufacturing facilities established through joint ventures with major automakers such as General Mo tors, Stellantis N.V. and Hyundai Motor Group. At the forefront of green business and sustainability, LG Energy Solution aims to achieve carbon neutral opera tions by 2050, while embodying the value of shared growth and promoting diverse and inclusive corporate culture. To learn more about LG Energy Solution’s ideas and innovations, visit https://www.lgen sol.com.
For more information, visit www.snowl akelithium.com, or contact ir@snowlakelithium.com or media@snowlakelithium.com. ✘
Based in Saskatoon, SK, Prairie Crane offers a wide range of crane and hoisting services for mining, industrial, commercial, and residential businesses operating throughout Western Canada. The business values of Prairie Crane are characterized by our respect for our customers, employees, environment and community.
• All Terrains
• Truck Mounts
• Boom Trucks
• Rough Terrains
• Carry Decks
• FOM and Bare Rentals
• Supervisors
• Riggers
• Jack and Slide
• Site Visits – By skilled supervisors
• Flat Deck and Heavy Haul Transport
• Engineered Drawings
• Auxiliary Equipment
Tackling your company’s ESG goals isn’t easy, but it’s a whole lot easier now. Over the last four years, Watson Gloves has been busy innovating their product selection and now has over 80 sustainable glove styles that you can transition to – without sacrificing safety or your budget.
As the leader of bringing sustainable offerings to the industrial glove market, Watson Gloves is ready to help your company transition to sustainable hand protection and help both Sus tainability Officers and Safety Officers meet their goals.
The time to change is now.
Innovation has been key, thinking outside of the box. The first sustainable item they brought to market in 2019 was Green Monkey disposable gloves. These gloves will decompose in land fill conditions in under 12 years, versus over 200 years for regular disposables. One year later, several glove styles were brought to market in which the yarn was made from recycled water bottles. We all know that plastic pollution is one of the big challenges facing society today. In fact, 59 billion empty water bottles are thrown out every year in the US and Canada. Production of Wat
son’s WasteNot ™ yarn is achieved by diverting PET water bottles from the landfill, breaking them down into chips, melting down into pellets and spinning them into recycled polyester yarn. The result is 100 per cent post-consumer recycled yarn made from post-consumer plastic water bottles. Utilizing bottles that would otherwise end up in the landfill reduces soil contamination, and water and air pollution, and requires 59 per cent less energy to produce gloves than if virgin materials were used. In addition, rPET (re-purposed PET water bottles) uses 90 per cent less water to produce and there is a reduction of 32 per cent of CO2 emis sions compared to virgin production. These numbers are signifi cant. Transitioning will mean a big win for the environment.
Following this success, Watson Gloves continued to innovate and developed nitrile gloves that biodegrade in landfill condi tions and in that biogas can be recovered to fuel our homes, busi nesses, and communities through landfill gas recovery in active landfills.
The demand for sustainable glove styles has rapidly grown as companies everywhere have become increasingly aware of their
environmental footprint and set their own sustainability goals. As a result, Watson Gloves now offers several glove styles with cut protection, or impact protection, as well as warm winter gloves made with 3M Eco-Thinsulate™ Type EC.
Their latest development has been the Watson Energy Calcula tor. They can now help companies quantify how they can reduce their environmental footprint by transitioning to sustainable hand protection. Call them for a SWAT, a Sustainable Watson Assessment Team, on-site audit. They can assess your glove us age, make sure you’re using the best styles for the job, and sug gest sustainable alternatives, showing you how transitioning to sustainable glove styles can mean reducing your environmental footprint through using the EPA Warm model. Using the Wat son Energy Calculator, they can now quantify usage of CO2, coal, water bottles, oil and gasoline in gloves using rPET vs gloves us ing virgin materials.
Increasing awareness of climate change and the catastrophic results mean urgent action is required by all of us to transition quickly to the most sustainable products in the market. Hand safety is, of course, of utmost importance but products are now available that meet your safety, budget, and environmental needs.
Visit watsongloves.com/services/swat-hazard-assessment/ to request a no cost, no obligation site audit to reduce hand injuries, consumption, cost, and waste. The time to change is now. ✘
Registration for AME Roundup now open! AME Roundup re turns to the Vancouver Conven tion Centre East from January 23 to 26, 2023.
“Responsible mineral exploration and development are critical to addressing our global challenges. The minerals and metals we discover ignite global supply chains, drive innovation and technology transformation, power new energy solu tions, and help achieve a low-carbon fu ture. They are ‘Critical to Our Future,’ and it starts with our passion, commitment, and expertise as an industry,” says Kendra Johnston, AME President and CEO.
AME Roundup 2023 registration is avail able at https://roundup.amebc.ca/regis ter/. Early bird ticket pricing for attendees is open until December 9, 2022. This year, attendees can live-stream Technical and Targeted Sessions with select passes.
“Thank you to our Patron Sponsor, Teck Resources Limited, and our Platinum Sponsor, Newcrest Mining Limited. The support and leadership of all our spon
sors enable us to make AME Roundup 2023 a reality for thousands of attendees,” continues Johnston.
In January 2023, geoscientists, prospec tors, financiers, investors, suppliers, gov ernments, and Indigenous partners from around the world will gather in Vancouver with opportunities to learn, connect and share the latest models, technologies, and techniques.
Also returning in 2023 after a two-year hiatus is Discovery Day, AME’s free, fam ily-focused event held on Sunday, January 22, at the Vancouver Convention Cen tre East. AME invites all members of the public to experience mineral exploration and mining with displays, exhibitors and experiences in a fun, hands-on, interactive environment.
See you at AME Roundup 2023!
Stay up to date on conference details, in cluding program announcements, short courses, speakers and networking oppor tunities at roundup.amebc.ca or follow our AME Roundup social media channels:
@AMEroundup on Twitter @ameroundup on Instagram ame-roundup on LinkedIn AMERoundup2023 ✘
Dumas is a leading full-service underground mining contractor. We are proud to sustain long-term relation ships with clients and local communities, providing concept to completion collaboration and a “one-team” collaborative partnership through the complete lifecycle. “Your Project, Our Expertise, Common Ground” extends beyond be ing just a tagline. It represents Dumas’ commitment to develop and sustain mutually beneficial, socially responsible long-term relationships with our clients and industry partners.
At Dumas, our greatest asset is our people. We have remained committed to the safety of our employees and clients, leading the way with our proactive approach to our COVID-19 re sponse, which enabled Dumas to remain active and thrive un der pandemic conditions in order to keep achieving our client’s targets and retain our valuable employees.
We are action- and results-oriented with a commitment to innovation and sustainability. We’re dedicated to nurturing strong, transparent, and mutually beneficial relationship with Indigenous communities throughout North and South Ameri ca, ensuring local communities share in the social and econom ic benefits or our projects and training opportunities.
Dumas is pound to have been an integral part of restoring Snow Lake’s community outdoor skating rink, which has enriched the winter experience of the area which has been the centre of many friendly competitions, as well as support the local Junior Rangers so they can be proud to fly their colours on their jour neys. Dumas also enjoys supporting other local initiatives such as the King Miner and Manitoba Mine Rescue competitions.✘
Toronto
Tel. +1(416)594-2525 Tel. +1(705)360-7773
Dedicated geotechnical drilling for exploration projects gener ally form a small percentage of the overall drilling conducted for exploration, resource definition, and metallurgical testing. Within this broader dataset of exploration data, site geologists log basic geotechnical pa rameters including Rock Quality Desig nation (RQD) and Total Core Recovery (TCR).
There can be challenges with improper collection of these basic geotechnical data and limitations to their usefulness within certain geological contexts. Reli ability of the mine design is contingent on being able to extrapolate these lim ited geotechnical drillholes and avail able basic geotechnical logging from resource drilling for delineation of geo technical domains. Uncertainties with in the RQD data of the resource dataset
can limit the effectiveness and validity of this methodology, generally lead ing to cost- and time-intensive core photo reviews to verify geotechnical domains.
Machine Learning (ML) workflow involving the use of computer vision and deep neural networks was devel oped by SRK for use in the geotechni cal classification of diamond core box photographs. The methodology in volves an assessment of the degree of brokenness of the drill core in the core boxes. For each project, algorithms are trained using a representative selec tion of core box photographs labelled with a qualitative classification sys tem. The trained algorithm identifies and maps similar conditions to these defined categories in available core box photographs for the entire proj ect. The classification categories can be refined on a project basis to adapt to deposit type and associated range of rock mass conditions. The quality of the results is checked by SRK to determine the level of accuracy and resolution of the data collected.
Explicitly, this workflow provides a detailed dataset that can be used to inform components of the geotechni
cal domain model. This workflow still relies on experience-based interpreta tion of the causes of the degree of bro kenness in the core boxes, which could be attributed to many factors including lithology, alteration, micro-defecting, weathering, and structures.
SRK has validated the workflows against exploration recovery data (i.e., RQD, TCR) and manual photologging.
The results of the ML workflow demon strate a consistently classified outcome (Figure 2). Capable of resolving inter vals of less than 10 centimetres, the ML output is far more detailed than what can be practically achieved through manual photologging. This approach to automated characterization of core images provides the ability to efficiently collect a very large geotechnical dataset
at early project stages to inform tech nical studies and reduce uncertainty in the design. Initial project experience suggests that ML can be implemented for less than 10 per cent of the time and costs associated with manual photo re views.
Visit www.srk.com for more informa tion. ✘
ing at 275.9 metres. The mineralization was associated with significant struc tural disruption and strong alteration of the sandstone and upper basement and anomalous U, with uranium-bearing fractures encountered approximately 25 metres below the unconformity.
Skyharbour Resources Ltd. recently announced assay results from the 2022 spring diamond drilling pro gram at its 100 per cent owned, 35,705-hectare Moore Uranium Project, located approximately 15 kilometres east of Denison Mine’s Wheeler River project and proximal to regional infrastructure for Cameco’s Key Lake and McArthur River operations in the Athabasca Ba sin, Saskatchewan. Skyharbour plans to continue advancing Moore through additional drilling in conjunction with the fully funded, multi-phased drill pro grams being planned at the Company’s recently acquired Russell Lake Uranium Project. News is forthcoming on the de tails of these drill programs.
“We continue to discover and delineate new zones of uranium mineralization at our high-grade Moore Project and have plans for future drilling and ex ploration at the property,” notes Jordan Trimble, President and CEO of Sky harbour Resources. “This will be tied in
with the inaugural drill program at our newly optioned Russell Lake Uranium Project where we are planning to com mence the first of several phases of drill ing shortly. We are fully funded for our largest-ever drill campaign over the next twelve months at our core projects, and additional news flow will be generated at several of our secondary projects funded by our partner companies Azincourt Energy, Valor Resources, Basin Urani um Corp., Medaro Mining, and Yellow Rocks Energy, as they commence followup drilling and exploration programs at these respective projects. Skyharbour is very well positioned to benefit from the accelerating uranium market resurgence with a catalyst-rich year ahead.”
• Hole ML22-07 was drilled within the western part of the Maverick East Zone. It intersected five metres of unconfor mity- and basement-hosted mineraliza tion returning 0.13 per cent U3O8 start
• Drilling in the newly identified Grid Nineteen area continued to intersect structurally disrupted, altered, and geo chemically anomalous sandstone and basement rocks, including variably gra phitic pelitic gneisses. All four holes drilled in 2022 showed enrichment in uranium, boron, and other pathfinder elements, with up to 382 ppm U encoun tered in hole ML22-03 within graphitic pelitic gneisses. A significant unconfor mity offset was also discovered between holes ML21-07 and ML22-02, which is believed to be related to the strong struc tural disruption of the sandstone seen in three out of the four holes drilled here in 2022. The results of drilling along the Grid Nineteen conductors continue to be encouraging and further work is rec ommended to follow up on the anoma lous structures along strike and at depth as the geochemistry, structure and al teration are suggestive of unconformityrelated uranium mineralization in the area. Significant untested targets remain on both conductors in this area.
• Drilling in the Viper area continued to show that this part of the Maverick conductive corridor is geochemically anomalous with uranium mineralization of 0.11 per cent U3O8 encountered over one metre in the basement of ML22-05. Anomalous uranium of ≤314 ppm U was also encountered in hole ML22-06.
• Substantial portions of the Maverick corridor remain to be systematically drill tested leaving robust discovery po tential along strike as well as at depth in the basement rocks. Skyharbour is planning a fully funded winter drill program which will include follow-up drilling at the Moore Project.
Drilling on the Moore Uranium Project over the spring of 2022 totalled 2,467 metres in seven diamond drill holes. Four exploratory holes (ML22-01 to -04) were drilled at the Grid Nineteen target con ductors, two exploratory holes (ML2205 and -06) were drilled in the Viper target area, and one hole (ML22-07) was drilled at the Maverick East Zone.
Future drill programs will continue to test targets identified by modelling down
plunge of the Maverick East Zone, tar gets along the Grid Nineteen conductors where anomalous geochemistry and ge ology have been identified, and test other regional targets at the project where the geochemistry/pathfinders and geology are strongly indicative of potentially ura niferous mineralizing systems.
In June 2016, Skyharbour secured an op tion to acquire Denison Mine’s Moore Uranium Project, on the southeastern side of the Athabasca Basin, in northern Saskatchewan and has fulfilled its earn in. The project consists of 12 contiguous claims totaling 35,705 hectares located 42 kilometres northeast of the Key Lake mill, approximately 15 kilometres east of Denison’s Wheeler River project, and 39 kilometres south of Cameco’s McArthur
River uranium mine. Unconformity-type uranium mineralization was discovered on the Moore Project at the Maverick Zone in April 2001. Historical drill high lights include 4.03 per cent eU3O8 over 10 metres, including 20 per cent eU3O8 over 1.4 metres, in ML-161. In 2017, Skyhar bour announced drill results of 6.0 per cent U3O8 over 5.9 metres, including 20.8 per cent U3O8 over 1.5 metres at a verti cal depth of 265 metres, in hole ML-199. In addition to the Maverick Zone, the project hosts other mineralized targets with strong discovery potential which the Company plans to test with future drill programs. The project is fully acces sible via winter and ice roads which sim plifies logistics and lowers costs. Large proportions of the property are acces sible in the summer as well. ✘
In June, the Manitoba government has approved the provinces first potash development, allowing the Potash and Agri-Devel opment Corporation of Manitoba (PADCOM) to start extrac tion and production near the community of Russell. The an nouncement was made by Premier Heather Stefanson at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference.
“This is a significant step forward in our commitment to estab lish Manitoba as a global leader in sustainable mineral develop ment,” Stefanson said. “Our government is proud to announce PADCOM has received all required approvals to move Mani toba’s first potash mining operation into production. We are working with Indigenous leadership and communities to pro mote participation in the mineral resource sectors and to en sure communities share in the benefits that result from growth in these sectors.”
Gambler First Nation and PADCOM have developed a part nership, with Gambler First Nation participating as a 20 per cent equity owner.
“We are pleased to partner with PADCOM on this landmark project, which will create jobs and help spark further economic
development opportunities in our community,” said Chief Da vid LeDoux of Gambler First Nation.
PADCOM will also present community benefit agreements to several Indigenous communities in the area, the Manitoba Mé tis Federation, and the Municipality of Russell-Binscarth.
PADCOM has completed the first part of the project in which two wells were drilled near the community of Harrowby to ex plore the local potash resource and determine feasibility. Fol lowing the recent Environment Act licence approval and sign ing of a mineral lease agreement with the province, PADCOM is authorized to move the development to the next phase of production.
“This operation will use a more environmentally friendly min ing process. The physical footprint is small, and the process will be using green Manitoba electricity, not fossil fuels,” said PAD COM president Daymon Guillas. “We’re excited to partner with Gambler First Nation to develop Manitoba’s first potash operation. This initiative will help support Manitoba’s econom ic recovery and plays a major role in making Manitoba a global leader in mining and mineral development.” ✘
T2 Metals Corp. is an emerging mineral exploration company, enhancing shareholder value through discovery and develop ment in North America. The company is led by a board and management team with a track record of discovery success across a range of commodities and con tinents.
The T2 Metals name was chosen to reflect the pivotal role played by the mining industry in the transition to reducing the climate impact of energy and transport. The global move away from single use oil, gas, and coal toward renewable energy is a transi tion to a greater reliance on ethically sourced metals and materials. With a focus on the discovery of copper, nickel, and lithium and a commit ment to minimizing the environmental impact of exploration and mining, T2
Metals is positioned to take a lead role in the supply of the critical of metals that enable the energy transition.
It is now well established that metals and innovative materials are essential to support the current standard of liv ing in the developed world and reduce energy poverty in the developing world. Generating renewable energy is materials intensive, materials that may one day be entirely sourced from recy cling but today requires substantially increased mining.
Copper stands at the forefront of the energy transition. Regardless of the technology choices for energy genera tion, energy storage and transport, copper is the essential metal for the transport of electricity. Solar energy generation requires approximately five kilograms of copper per kilowatt, more
than double the copper intensity of other forms of generation. A hybrid car requires 40 kilograms of copper, while a battery electric vehicle requires up to 80 kilograms – some four times that of an internal combustion engine.
The risk that metal supply constraining the transition to renewable energy is neither insignificant nor insurmount able. To increase supply of copper, nickel, and other essential metals requires many new mines over coming years. Against this backdrop, T2 Met als has not stood still and is building a future-focused strategy and highpotential project portfolio.
By focusing on jurisdictions with a strong mining heritage and recent suc cess in mine permitting and develop ment, T2 Metals believes copper-dom inant projects can be both discovered
Aguila Copper Corp is an emerging battery - metal exploration company enhancing shareholder value through discovery and development.
Aguila is focused on porphyry, VHMS and skarn copper in the mining districts of Manitoba , Nevada and Arizona. Projects range from green fields to resource stage with excellent discovery potential.
In Manitoba, Aguila is exploring the Sherridon Cu - Zn - Ag - Au camp which lies 70km north east of Flin Flon . Sherridon is a notable historic mining centre, with production until 1955 totalling 7.74 million tonnes @ 2.5% Cu, 2.9% Zn, 0.6 g/t Au & 33 g/t Ag.
Subsequent exploration by Hudbay Minerals Inc and Halo Resources Ltd discovered a range of near surface copper rich resources. Sherridon is serviced by a small community, with all weather road access, and operating rail.
Aguila looks forward to being an active part of the Manitoba community
TSX-V : AGL OTCQB : AGLAF FRANKFURT : AGP2
and developed. Such development can utilize existing infrastructure and per sonnel to ensure minimum environ mental and social impacts and deliver in timeframes meaningful to both shareholders and customers.
T2 Metal’s current property and generative portfolio is focused on the deposit styles that account for the
most prolific copper production. Our current exploration strategy targets porphyry, skarn and VHMS copper de posits globally, with a focus on North America. Projects range from green fields where new targets have been generated by the T2 team to resourcestage projects where near-term mining opportunities are combined with excel lent discovery potential.
In Manitoba, T2 Metals is exploring the Sherridon Cu-Zn-Ag-Au camp which lies 70 kilometres northeast of Flin Flon. Sherridon is a notable his toric mining centre, with production until 1955 totalling 7.74 million tonnes @ 2.5 per cent Cu, 2.9 per cent Zn, 0.6 g/t Au & 33 g/t Ag.
Subsequent exploration by Hudbay Minerals Inc and Halo Resources Ltd. discovered a range of near surface cop per-rich resources, all with potential for expansion. Sherridon is serviced by a small community, with all-weather road access, and operating rail.
In Nevada, T2 Metals 100-per-centowned Lida project lies on the richly mineralized Walker Lake trend. The project has numerous historic oxide/ carbonate copper workings at surface associated with faults and structures,
and intense silicification. The company has recently completed an IP survey which defined a strong sub-cropping chargeability anomaly that may be as sociated with skarn or porphyry style mineralization.
In Arizona, T2 Metals owns the Cora project, where historic drilling under cover has discovered thick copper intersections adjacent to a past pro ducing structurally controlled copper mine. A recent airborne magnetic sur vey defined a “thumbprint” magnetic anomaly with characteristics support ive of a buried copper target.
The T2 Metals team is strong and growing, with highly experienced cor porate and technical leadership with a long history of value creation. Manage ment and board includes Mark Saxon with a strong record of discovery; Blair Way, CEO of Patriot Battery Metals, founders of the rapidly expanding Cor vette lithium project in Quebec; and Dr. Jamil Sader, CEO of Monumental Minerals Corp., discovering lithium and rare-earth elements. The company presents a very tight capital structure and strong insider ownership posi tion to ensure delivery of value to all stakeholders. ✘
