Ear Falls Spodumene Project

Summary

The Ear Falls Project (20,623 ha), previously referred to as the Wenasaga Project, is located right outside the town of Ear Falls, Ontario. Ear Falls has excellent infrastructure including highway and logging road access, power lines, services, and local labor. In the 2023 exploration program at Ear Falls, Beyond Lithium:

  • Discovered the Wenasaga North Zone, a spodumene-bearing pegmatites zone, with grab samples up to 4.54% Li2O.
  • Discovered the Sandy Creek West Zone along a 100m wide ridge with grab samples from pegmatites outcrops assayed up to 0.4% Li2O.
  • Reported that grab samples from the Sandy Creek West Zone are as highly fractionated as the spodumene samples collected from the Wenasaga North Zone.
  • Confirmed a 13 kilometers long exploration structural controlled corridor with lithium mineralization.
  • Delineated continuous higher-grade lithium zone enveloped by wider intervals through stripping and channel sampling.
  • Completed an initial 7 holes drilling program that intercepted new subparallel pegmatite dyke at depth that was not exposed on surface previously.

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Infrastructure

The Ear Falls Project (20,623 ha) is located near the town of Ear Falls (pop. 1,100) that is less than 10 minutes’ drive away from the southern property boundary. The Project is located 70 km south of Red Lake and 145 km north of Dryden with excellent infrastructure including a highway that connects the cities of Dryden, Red Lake, and Kenora, and logging roads access throughout most of the Project, power line along the main highway, local labor force, and equipment facility etc. In addition, the Ear Falls Project is located within 100 km from the other brand-new spodumene discovery by Beyond Lithium, the Victory Project.

Ear Falls Project Claim and Location Map

Regional Geology

The Ear Falls Project is located in the English River Subprovince along a regional splay fault structure branched off from the subprovince boundary of the English River Subprovince and the Uchi Subprovince. The northwestern part of the Project is hosted in granite, the Wenasaga Lake Batholith, and the southeastern part of the Project is hosted in metasediment separated by the regional splay fault. The spodumene-bearing pegmatites and the lithium occurrence recorded by Ontario Geological Survey, the Sandy Creek Beryl, were discovered along the contact between the granite and the metasediment following the overall orientation of the regional splay fault.

Spodumene-Bearing Pegmatite Discovery

The Phase 1 exploration program completed in June at Ear Falls discovered spodumene-bearing pegmatites that were traced for over one kilometer along strike. In addition, the Phase 1 program collected 4 grab samples from the spodumene pegmatites zone with Li2O ranging from 0.76% to 4.54% and cesium, Cs, ranging from 32.83 ppm to 68.97 ppm. The initial spodumene-bearing pegmatites zone was traced over one kilometer on surface based on surface exposures.

Assays Along the Main Zone, One KM Long of Spodumene-bearing Pegmatites

Beyond Lithium since updated the overall geology of the project and more significantly located the batholith-metasedimentary contact within the project as this contact is the preferential structure for the LCT pegmatites at Ear Falls. After discovering the spodumene pegmatites zone, Beyond Lithium’s field team further explored along this metasedimentary-batholith contact and was able to locate three new beryl-bearing pegmatites. The main spodumene-beryl trend was discovered in the northeastern part of the project and has so far been mapped and extended from one kilometer to over three kilometers along strike which are still open in all directions.

Field Crew Channel Sampling Spodumene Pegmatite Exposed from Stripping

In addition, this prospective three-kilometer zone lies within a 13 km long structural controlled exploration corridor that was delineated by the metasedimentary granite contact and outlined by a <100 K/Rb fractionation contour. Measuring the ratio variations between potassium (“K”), cesium (“Cs”), rubidium (“Rb”) in samples is a common and useful exploration tool to display the fractionation trend or the relative degree of evolution of S-type, peraluminous granites and related pegmatite granites and the rare-element pegmatite groups that fractionated from the parent granitic rocks.

Overview Exploration Trend at the Ear Falls Project Showing the Defined 3 km Trend of Spodumene-Beryl Zone and Three Over 10 km long Structural Controlled Exploration Corridors in Relation to the K/Rb Fractionation Zonation

Phase 2 Exploration

After the discovery of the spodumene-bearing pegmatites at Ear Falls, Beyond Lithium carried out a more advanced Phase 2 program with the objective to gather additional geological data to construct a more complete geological model of the Ear Falls Spodumene system. The Phase 2 program includes high resolution drone imagery, detailed mapping, stripping, channel sampling, and drill testing the spodumene zone. From the Phase 2 Program, a total of 205 individual pegmatite outcrops have now been mapped along the main structural controlled exploration corridor. Also, a potassium over rubidium (“K/Rb”) ratio fractionation zonation was delineated from the 2023 sampling program vectoring a 13 km long exploration trend. Both the stripping and the channel sampling programs extended the spodumene pegmatites and exposed subparallel dykes on surface. Besides, the 2023 drilling program consisted of 7 holes covering 125 m strike length of the spodumene zone better defined the structural control and the composition of the pegmatites as well as the distribution of the spodumene.

Beyond Lithium Geologist Preforming Core Logging at Ear Falls Core Shack

Exploration

The Ontario Geological Survey released collected data in 2002 and outlined a couple of 1.1% and 1.2% A/CNK ratio samples in the eastern expansion of the Ear Falls project which suggested the presence of a nearby fertile pluton. Based on LCT pegmatites literature, a molecular ratio [Al2O3/(CaO + Na2O + K2O)] is commonly used to indicate whether a sample or a stock/pluton is mildly peraluminous (A/CNK = 1.0 to 1.1) or strongly peraluminous (A/CNK > 1.2) (Tindle 2006). These mildly to strongly peraluminous A/CNK samples also coincide with an area of elevated deep lake sediment in lithium just situated northeast of the Ear Falls project. This eastern expansion could be a new area to explore for a separate system from the new spodumene pegmatites zone associated with the Wenasaga Lake batholith and the Sandy Creek beryl pegmatites group.

In short, the next exploration program will include:

  • Further drilling to outline and define the spodumene-bearing pegmatites system at Ear Falls
  • To continue exploring for new spodumene zone along other identified granite-metasedimentary contacts across the Project
  • To explore for new spodumene zone along the 13 km long exploration trend
  • To carry out regional sampling and mapping programs in newly expanded area

Brand New Exploration Target in the Eastern Area of the Expanded Ear Falls Project with >1% A/CNK and Elevated Lake Sediment in Lithium