Burley grows footprint in Quebec’s hard rock lithium capital

Burley is doubling down on its belief in the hard rock lithium prospectivity of the Abitibi Hub district of Quebec, Canada, by moving to acquire the Bouvier project.

The 219 hectare project – located just 14km northwest of the company’s Chubb lithium project – is well positioned with ready access to supporting infrastructure such sealed roads, operating rail networks within the district, multiple port options and established towns, mines, and a hydro-powered grid.

Importantly for Burley Minerals (ASX:BUR), the Abitibi District is home to existing mines and developments such as the North American Lithium mine (101.9Mt at 1.06% Li₂O) run by Sayona Mining and Piedmont Lithium that hosts an operating lithium concentrator as well as the Authier lithium project that is a proposed satellite mine for spodumene blending ore for the NAL concentrator.

Previous exploration had returned significant lithium intersections along with substantial widths of spodumene-bearing pegmatites.

“Burley Minerals signing of a binding agreement to acquire a 100% ownership interest in the Bouvier lithium project, located in the heart of the only operating hard-rock lithium mine and concentrator in the Abitibi Hub district of Quebec, is a great and strategic acquisition and has many synergies with our Chubb lithium project,” managing director Wayne Richards said.

“The close proximity of these projects bodes well for future exploration and development potential via the economic utilisation of resources and infrastructure from the same district and surrounding towns.”

He added that the acquisition is consistent with the company’s strategy of expanding its lithium assets in the Abitibi hub and creates further opportunities for value accretion at a time of growing lithium demand.

Ideal lithium host

The Bouvier project is located within the Preissac-Lacorne plutonic complex of the Abitibi greenstone belt, in the Saint-Mathieu municipality of Figuery township.

Its geological setting and structure of the volcano-sedimentary assemblages form an ideal host for lithium-rich pegmatites.

Recent drilling by Newfoundland Discovery in 2022 returned multiple significant lithium intersections such as 4.1m at 1.12% Li2O from 19.1m and 3.1m at 1.5% Li2O from 81.9m in hole 22-BOU-001 as well as 10.2m at 0.75% Li2O including 6m at 1% Li2O from 116.6m in hole 22-BOU-002.

Historical drilling in the 1950s by Lithium Americas Corp also intersected multiple substantial widths of spodumene-bearing pegmatites of up to 13.7m from 35.2m in drilling over a strike length of 220m to the west of the more recent results.

While these were not assayed for lithium, Burley has flagged that this area warrants priority drill testing.

Additionally, rock chip samples collected in 2010 reported grades of up to 2.67% Li2O with mineralisation found to be open along strike to both the east and west.

Future plans

Burley plans to follow up drill targets reported in a structurally prepared geological environment where sedimentary-volcanic rocks veer from an east-west to a south-east direction.

These pegmatites at the Land Side prospect, the Harricana Prospect where pegmatites are exposed on the western bank of the Harricana River, nearby sub horizonal pegmatite dykes, and north-western targets where pegmatites were encountered during historical drilling.

This article was developed in collaboration with Burley Minerals (ASX:BUR), a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

The post Burley grows footprint in Quebec’s hard rock lithium capital appeared first on Stockhead.

asx
lithium