Lithium developers in Canada rake in the project milestones

North America-focused development juniors are turning investment dollars into project milestones, set against an increased urgency to find and develop new lithium resources to feed the accelerating global energy transition.

On Thursday, Australia’s Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA; US-OTC: SYAXF) and joint venture partner Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ: PLL; ASX: PLL) announced the restart of spodumene concentrate production at their North American Lithium (NAL) project in Quebec; Allied Copper’s (TSXV: CPR; US-OTCQB: CPRRF) lithium unit, Volt Lithium, started field testing of its new direct lithium extraction process in Alberta; and Patriot Battery Metals (TSXV: PMET; ASX: PMT; US-OTC: PMETF) on Wednesday reported more high-grade drill intercepts from its Corvette discovery, also in Quebec.

Sayona and Piedmont have restarted production at NAL, a historic producer in Quebec. The pair have spent about US$80 million to get the project back into production since 2021.

It is reportedly the only significant source of new spodumene production on the continent for the next two years, with the operation ramping up to 226,000 tonnes of concentrate per year. The first commercial shipments will start in the September quarter.

Sayona’s managing director, Brett Lynch, said in a news release the project team had maintained a forward-looking focus to improve lithium recoveries, achieve more consistent runtimes, and streamline operating costs from the past-producing operation.

One of three projects in Sayona Quebec’s portfolio, NAL is 75% owned by Sayona and 25% by Piedmont.

One of three projects in Sayona Quebec’s portfolio, NAL is 75% owned by Sayona and 25% by Piedmont. The project will supply key battery and electric vehicle manufacturers, including LG Chem and Tesla, who have signed offtake agreements. Sayona targets four shipments from NAL, totalling up to 120,000 tonnes by year-end.

The operation is powered by hydroelectricity and is in the province’s well-developed Abitibi region.

Sayona expects to publish an updated definitive feasibility study for NAL and its Authier lithium project by mid-2024. It also plans to undertake an extensive drill program at NAL and other nearby prospects to supply more higher-grade tonnes to the NAL concentrator.

The endgame is to become a vertically integrated lithium producer. Sayona plans to publish a prefeasibility study by June examining completing the project’s lithium carbonate plant, which prior owners of the operation left partially constructed. The company said further evaluation of downstream production of lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide in Quebec could follow the prefeasibility.

As on Mar. 30, Sayona shares were up 8% in the year to date at A22¢ apiece, giving it a market capitalization of A$1.8 billion ($1.6 billion). Piedmont closed up 2.4% in Sydney at A84¢, having gained 31% since Jan. 2. It has a market capitalization of A$1.7 billion ($1.5 billion).

Alberta brines

Meanwhile, Volt Lithium has completed bench-scale testing of its newly developed DLE process and has started field tests at its Rainbow Lake project in northwest Alberta.

Volt aims to achieve high lithium recoveries from generally low-grade oilfield brine at scale. It wants to demonstrate that its patented technology can turn a profit.

The field testing follows the company’s January announcement that it removed 99% of contaminants in the first stage of its two-step process using its oilfield brine treating system on a bench-scale basis. Volt also said it had achieved 93% lithium recoveries from oilfield brines in the laboratory.

Volt Lithium has started field testing to demonstrate that its patented technology can turn a profit. Credit: Allied Copper.

The company’s technology extracts lithium from the brine and concentrates it into a lithium chloride solution that can ultimately be upgraded to lithium hydroxide.

Volt intends to process up to 250,000 litres of brine through the second quarter and report results in June.

Allied’s Toronto-quoted equity achieved a new 12-month high on the news at 32¢ per share, meaning the share price has nearly trebled in value since the start of the year.

Lithium exploration

At the other end of the value chain, Patriot Battery Metals continues to regularly release high-grade drill intercepts from its Corvette exploration project in northern Quebec.

The latest batch of assay results from its winter 2023 program, which has been focused on the CV5 pegmatite, continues to demonstrate strong resource potential across its land package. The company says Mar. 29 drilling results have extended the strike of the high-grade Nova Zone along strike by 400 metres to 750 metres, including a very high-grade band of over 5% lithium oxide over about 200 metres strike length.

Among the highlight results was hole CV23-105, which returned 83.7 metres at 3.13% lithium oxide from 227 metres, including 19.8 metres at 5.28% lithium oxide and 5.1 metres at 5.17%. Hole CV23-106 intersected 132.2 metres grading at 1.22% lithium oxide from 274 metres, including 11.2 metres at 2.99% and 6 metres at 2.92%.

The Nova Zone remains open to the east.

Patriot recently extended the strike length of the CV5 pegmatite to 3.15 kilometres, an additional 550 metres since February.

Incorporating the recent drilling results, Canaccord Genuity mining analyst Katie Lachapelle recently increased her conceptual resource estimate for Corvette. She now puts the conceptual resource at about 148.8 million tonnes grading on average 1.14% lithium oxide, up from about 100 million tonnes at 1.15% previously. This resulted in an 11-year increase in her conceptual mine plan. Overall, Canaccord’s development-production scenario entails a 5 million tonne per year operation starting in 2030, with production to average 636,000 tonnes per year.

Six drill rigs are active at the CV5 prospect and will continue to work until the end of April when drilling activities will pause for the annual goose harvesting season. Activities will restart in late May for the summer-fall portion of the Corvette drill campaign.

Patriot continues to be a market darling, closed 7.2% higher Thursday at $13.70 apiece — more than double their value at the start of the year. It enjoys a hefty market capitalization of $1.4 billion for a junior without a defined resource.