Patriot expands Vega zone with intercepts as high as 5.1% lithium oxide

Patriot Battery Metals (TSXV: PAT; US-OTC: PTBRF) reported high grades from drilling at its recently-discovered Vega zone at the Corvette property in Quebec’s Eeyou Istchee James Bay region.

The company’s 2024 winter drill program has expanded the high-grade lithium oxide (Li₂O) mineralization at Vega, first discovered in early May, with highlights including 51.7 metres at 1.77% Li₂O, including 9.7 metres at 5.16% Li₂O from 95.9 metres depth in hole CV24-525; 35.3 metres at 2.4% Li₂O, including 17.4 metres at 3.12% Li₂O from 126.8 metres in hole CV24-520. Another highlight was hole CV24-524, which returned 34.8 metres grading 1.87% Li₂O, including 19.1 metres at 3.17% Li₂O from 126.7 metres depth.

Vega is about 380 by 220 metres in size and shows a flat lying to shallowly dipping orientation, with a thickness ranging from 8 metres to over 30 metres. It remains open in multiple directions, indicating significant exploration potential.

“The final holes from our recently completed winter drill program at CV13 confirm a significant discovery of high-grade spodumene pegmatite at the Vega zone, with high-grade mineralization now defined over a significant area,” Darren L. Smith, Patriot’s vice president exploration said. 

“With such high grades present at the Vega zone – akin to what we see at the Nova zone at CV5 – including a standout 9.7 metres intercept grading over 5% Li₂O, the new results clearly validate the considerable potential at CV13 as well as that of the larger mineralized system at Corvette.” 

An initial resource for CV13, which is located near the CV5 pegmatites and extends for at least 2.3 km, is slated for the third quarter. Patriot also plans to further delineate this discovery with a summer-fall drill program targeting around 10,000 metres of drilling, aiming to increase confidence in the resource estimate at CV5 and explore eastwards towards CV5.

CV5 holds 109.2 million inferred tonnes at 1.42% Li₂O, and 160 parts per million tantalum, according to an initial resource from last June. That amounts to 1.6 million tonnes of contained Li₂O, or 3.8 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. It’s said to be the largest lithium pegmatite resource in the Americas and is in a province with almost 200 active lithium exploration projects, the most in Canada, at almost 200.

Quebec also hosts the producing North American Lithium mine, a 75:25 joint venture between Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA; US-OTC: SYAXF) and Piedmont Lithium (ASX: PLL).

Shares in Patriot were down 8.8% to $4.52 apiece on Monday afternoon, valuing the company at $619.9 million. Its shares traded in a 52-week range of $4.50 and $9.76.