You beauty: Valor adds Jesaulenko to lithium portfolio

Valor Resources has ticked off a second item from its targeted triad of lithium targets in Canada’s booming Thunder Bay area in Ontario after completing its acquisition of the Jesaulenko project.

The company’s 100 per cent acquisition of Jesaulenko comes just days after it also grabbed the nearby Frazer Lake lithium project and an 80 per cent share of the Hook Lake uranium play in Saskatchewan. As part of the new deal, vendor Stratosphere Li will transfer $350,000 to Valor and receive 321.5 million shares in the company to remain exposed to the project.

Valor says it is also working on a definitive agreement for the 55-square-kilometre Morrison River project in Ontario where five white pegmatite dykes were defined within the greenstone belt by the Ontario Geological Survey.

Jesaulenko lies 21km south-west of Rock Tech Lithium’s Georgia Lake project that hosts an indicated mineral resource of 10.6 million tonnes grading 0.88 per cent lithium oxide.

Additionally, Georgia Lake comes with an inferred resource of 4.2 million tonnes running 1 per cent lithium oxide and a probable ore reserve of 7.33 million tonnes going 0.82 per cent lithium oxide.

According to Rock Tech’s 2022 pre-feasibility study, production from Georgia Lake is slated to kick off next year.

Valor Resources executive chairman George Bauk said: “The Jesaulenko acquisition marks another key step in Valor’s growth path and transformation as a Canadian-focused Uranium, Rare Earths and Lithium explorer. With a definitive option agreement also finalised for the Frazer Lake Project and close to completion for the Morrison Lake Project, our growth strategy is rapidly taking shape. We look forward to reporting further progress on these agreements.”

The company says the geology of the Jesaulenko project comprises Archaean metasediments intruded by mica-rich granites thought to be the likely origin of lithium mineralisation in the district and believes the setting is analogous to that at Georgia Lake. The project also has good company, with other advanced exploration lithium projects sharing the Thunder Bay address on the northern margins of Lake Superior.

They include Frazer Lake where pegmatite channel sampling turned up a 44m run going 0.54 per cent lithium oxide, in addition to other lithium oxide hits from pegmatite chip samples ranging from 6.42 per cent to 7.26 per cent. Other operations within a 300km radius of Jesaulenko include Critical Resources’ Mavis Lake, Green Technology Metals’ Root Bay and Seymour projects, Battery Age Minerals’ Falcon Lake and Imagine Lithium’s Jackpot play.

A quick eyeballing of the lithium potential embraced by the projects points to a possible combined total of 47.3 million tonnes at an overall average grade of about 1.05 per cent lithium oxide for almost 500,000 tonnes of lithium oxide.

Valor will now turn its attention to polishing off the deal for Morrison River, which sits about 530km north-west of Frazer Lake. The dykes at the project trend north-west/south-east through 13km along strike and management says the setting is interpreted as being analogous to Frontier Lithium’s Pak lithium project, which was discovered by the Ontario Geological Society in the late 1990s and was first drilled by Frontier in 2013.

It hosts a rare technical/ceramic-grade spodumene with low inherent iron and is possibly the biggest deposit of its kind in North America, with a probable mineral reserve of 4 million tonnes at 1.79 per cent lithium oxide.

Together, Valor believes the three Ontario projects provide a low-cost entry into a portfolio of prospective lithium projects to complement its existing large portfolio of uranium and rare earths assets in Canada’s world-class Athabasca Basin.

The company is lining up a diverse suite of relevant projects in multiple commodities, jurisdictions and geological settings. And if its latest acquisition comes up trumps, it may well be prompted to shout a hearty “You beauty” in similar fashion to the way football commentator Mike Williamson did in the 1970 VFL grand final when Carlton legend Alex Jesaulenko took a screamer for the ages.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au