Greenlight advancing east-coast lithium project

Vancouver – Eastern Canada-focused Greenlight Resources (GR-V) is testing a new lithium extraction process that could be used at its Brazil Lake project, while it continues to expand its overall property holdings.

The patented lithium process, known as the Silchlor cyclic vacuum chlorination process, involves chlorination at multiple increasing temperatures including a vacuum stage to volatize certain chlorides. Chloride vapours of several elements are then produced including lithium, aluminum, iron and manganese, with the off-gasses cooled to create various chlorides.

The company launched testing of the process in July with a small-scale reactor to independently verify the results the developer of the process, Silchlor, achieved on material from Greenlight’s project last year. The latest testing, led by Dr. Ian Flint of Halifax, N.S., will also be used to estimate the costs of the system and provide a base study for potential scaling-up to a pilot and full-scale operation.

Greenlight sees the process as a potentially lower-cost, more environmentally-friendly method of lithium extraction than conventional hydrometallurgical processes, while also reducing waste produced and producing a higher-purity product.

While the technology could be applied elsewhere, the company is looking to use it on its Brazil Lake lithium project. So far exploration on the project has identified two northeast striking, near-vertically dipping, spodumene-bearing pegmatites dikes. Drill results to date on the project include 12.5 metres grading 1.47% lithium oxide from 31 metres downhole, and 20.9 metres averaging 1.27% lithium oxide from 47 metres depth, both true widths.

Greenlight optioned into the 12.8-sq.-km Brazil Lake project in southern Nova Scotia in mid-2010 from privately-held Champlain Mineral Ventures. Greenlight can earn 60% by spending $2 million on exploration over 3 years and paying $200,000 cash, and can increase its stake to 75% by completing a feasibility study. The project sits 30 km north of Yarmouth and 12 km west of Avalon Rare Metals‘ (AVL-T) East Kemptville project.

The company has identified four primary drill targets on the Brazil Lake project following a summer soil sampling program. The targets were identified based on their relationship to lithium-bearing pegmatite float boulder trains, plus some targets were identified through soil-gas-hydrocarbon soil sampling alone.

Along with its lithium project, Greenlight also optioned the Kemptville gold property from Champlain. In a deal struck in March, Greenlight can earn 80% of the 20-sq.-km project by paying $170,000 over the next three years and spending $1.3 million on exploration over the next two. The company is working through a bulk sample at the project to test the placer gold potential.

In October 2010, Greenlight struck a deal with two individuals to earn 100% of the Porcupine-Upper Miramichi rare earth property in New Brunswick. The 13.9-sq.-km property is underlain by Ordovician intrusives, metavolcanics and metasedimentary rocks. Previous exploration identified a 100-sq.-metre section with very high REE values including 98.6 grams dysprosium per tonne, 218 grams samarium per tonne, 472 grams yttrium per tonne and 1,190 grams neodymium per tonne. Another section of the property is prospective for base metals. Greenlight has conducted soil sampling and an induced polarization survey on the site.

Elsewhere in the Maritimes, Greenlight has staked a roughly 8.1-sq.-km manganese project known as Tomahawk Ridge where previous channel sampling returned 12 metres grading 9.67% manganese and 9.33% iron, and optioned the 25.9-sq.-km Keymet silver property in New Brunswick.

Greenlight’s share price recently closed at 13¢. The company has a 52-week share price range between 11¢ and 29¢ and has 27.3 million shares outstanding.