Houston tests Pakeagama Lake

Check assaying of channel and grab samples from the Pakeagama Lake property in northwestern Ontario is confirming the potential of a rare-metal-bearing pegmatite for Houston Lake Mining (HLM-V).

The highlight of the work was mineralization found in the Wall zone, where 11 metres returned 344 grams tantalum oxide per tonne, 0.9% rubidium oxide, 1,776 grams cesium oxide, 68.9 grams tin, 131.9 grams niobium oxide, 1.34% lithium oxide, 25.9 grams thallium and 42.2 grams gallium. Germanium and beryllium results are pending.

The samples were originally assayed last autumn by Mississauga, Ont.-based Chemex Labs and check-assayed by the Ontario Geological Survey’s Geoscience Laboratories in Sudbury.

The OGS lab employed inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) with high-threshhold rare-metal standards, infrared spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence.

The same Wall zone samples assayed by Chemex last year returned 11 metres of 285 grams tantalum oxide, 0.54% rubidium oxide, 913 grams cesium oxide, 108 grams tin, 166.5 grams niobium oxide, 1.14% lithium oxide, 6 grams thallium and 3.3 grams germanium.

Because the values derived from the provincial lab are significantly higher than those obtained from Chemex, Houston Lake intends to assay the samples at a third lab.

The company notes that the channel-sample grades at Pakeagama Lake compare favourably with those of the Wodgina primary tantulum mine in Western Australia, where reserves stand at 27 million tonnes grading 420 grams tantalum oxide per tonne. Wodgina is owned by Australia’s Sons of Gwalia.

At the Pakeagama property, where exploration has so far focussed on one outcrop, Houston Lake plans to carry out mapping, geophysical surveying, trenching and stripping, with drilling expected to follow.

Houston Lake is trying to raise funds to explore Pakeagama Lake and its Tib Lake platinum-palladium prospects. Toward this end, it will issue a private placement, in Ontario and Alberta, of a maximum of 250,000 units priced at $1.20 each. A unit consists of one flow-through share and one share with a share-purchase warrant exercisable at 70 for one year and 80 in the subsequent year. The placement is expected to generate $300,000 in proceeds. (In our May 29 issue, we incorrectly stated that this private placement had already been completed.)

Meanwhile, John Kelly has become a director of Houston Lake. Kelly, who works as a consulant, was previously vice-president of mining for Inco’s Ontario Division.