SourceRock Project

SourceRock is a drill-ready project with an exploration permit already in-hand from the Ontario Ministry of Mines for up to 20 drill pads.  Initial geophysical data compilation has already identified saline brine drill targets on the Project.  The Company is currently engaged with local Indigenous groups, communities, and stakeholders, and anticipates a drill program to commence after sufficient and meaningful consultation has been completed. 

Historic drilling in 2006 intersected significant saline water flow from 184.7 to 202.39 metres, and halite cubes, sedimentary cements, and beds, including halite precipitating from waters as the core dries from 528.52 to 582.5 metres (see core photo below).*  Halite precipitating as described in the core logs suggests the saline fluids are supersaturated with high concentrations of total dissolved solids. 

This is essential to SourceRock as previous drill holes demonstrate that we are within a high-pressure sedimentary basin with very high salinity. However, lithium was not a marketable commodity when these drill holes were completed and thus never analyzed in either the fluids or the rocks. Metal Energy now controls a dominant land position covering the deepest parts of the basin.  All the pathfinder elements and multiple supporting documents suggest high lithium concentrations are probable.

SourceRock encompasses 91,477 hectares within the Proterozoic Sibley sedimentary basin, Thunder Bay-Nipigon area, Ontario. The Project has excellent access to infrastructure and capacity that has supported previous exploration programs and mine development, including year-round highway, railroad, and seaport access, with power and natural gas lines crossing the Project.  

The SourceRock Li brine project covers a dominant land position of untested regional lithium brine targets within the Proterozoic Sibley sedimentary basin that is on a regional scale equivalent in size to Chile's Salar de Atacama central salt body, the largest Li brine-producing jurisdiction in the world.  Not only do we have a large aerial coverage, SourceRock covers the deepest parts of the Basin with sedimentary thickness ranging from 500 m to 1,000 m, enhancing Li brine prospectivity. Exploration in the area has reported considerable evidence of supersaturated saline solutions within the Basin sediments and even the underlying Li-pegmatite-rich basement rocks.  Halite (sodium, "Na") and sylvite (potassium, "K") veins, bedded layers, interstitial cements, and even encrustations on drill core and drill rods have all been mentioned in a variety of reports.  Both Na and K are important pathfinders for Li within brine solutions, and higher concentrations of each of these elements supports the potential for higher concentrations of Li.