Samples of up to 7.43% Li2O? Early exploration suggests Olympio could be on the road to Québec’s next lithium find

• Rock chip samples have returned lithium grades of up to 7.43% Li2O at the Cadillac project in Canada
• K:Rb ratios of <30 indicate fractionated pegmatites across numerous target areas identified from field mapping
• Field crews are on deck sampling in the field to generate highly prospective drill targets

High surface grades from rock chips have confirmed highly prospective lithium targets at the Wells-Lacourcière prospect, part of Olympio Metals’ flagship Cadillac project in the emerging Abitibi lithium hub in Québec, Canada.

Cadillac is in the rapidly emerging Cadillac-Pontiac lithium camp, <100km from Canada’s only operating lithium mine in Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA) and Piedmont Lithium’s NAL JV operation.

The Abitibi lithium hub hosts Sayona and Piedmont’s 58Mt @ 1.23% Li2O NAL resource, its 14.1Mt @ 1.1% Li2O Authier project, and 25Mt @ 1.25% Li2O exploration target.

South of Cadillac, another ASX explorer, Winsome Resources (ASX:WR1) is proving up its Decelles project within the region.

Acquired just last month from Vision Lithium, early exploration by Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY) at Cadillac is returning impressive results based on previous drilling that showed visible crystals in drill cores with grades of up to 3.14% Li2O.

Early exploration shows up to 7.43% Li2O

Results from 59 rock chip samples have returned from the lab and show up to a whopping 7.43% Li2O.

The known dykes at Wells-Lacourcière were also sampled, together with newly discovered dykes in the region. The best results were recovered from a spodumene-bearing pegmatite at Dyke B, recording six samples >1% Li2O up to 7.43% Li2O.

On top of that, the full suite of geochemical results has demonstrated that elevated lithium mineralisation within the Wells-Lacourcière pegmatite is strongly correlated with K:Rb (potassium to rubidium) ratios <30.

Considering that in the lithium realm a K:Rb ratio of <100 is a favourable indicator of fractionated pegmatites, Olympio reckons this result provides an “excellent exploration tool” for numerous other prospective pegmatites that have been observed throughout the Cadillac project area.

Next moves

“We are in a great position with Cadillac in Quebec. We have high-grade lithium at the surface, and are currently exploring 190km2 of underexplored tenure, just a short drive from the town of Val-d’Or,” Olympio MD Sean Delaney says.

The explorer has two field crews sampling priority targets, fanning out from the known high-grade lithium areas to test for prospectivity as it looks to generate new drilling targets.

“The sampling crews are using portable analysers (LIBS and XRF) to significantly speed up the exploration process, through in-field real-time assessment of lithium content and pathfinder elements,” Delaney says.

Olympio is very optimistic that this type of accelerated exploration methodology, combined with the newly validated pathfinder vector (K:Rb), will generate new priority drilling targets for 2024.

“Our plan is to generate as much data as possible in the current field season, with the aim of generating priority drill targets for the Quebec winter.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Olympio Metals, 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.

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