Summit Minerals joins the James Bay lithium chorus with new project acquisition

Summit has nabbed 80% of the Castor lithium project in Canada’s prolific James Bay region within the same greenstone belt as TSX-V listed companies Ophir Gold and Q2 Metals.

Canada has a lot of promise to become “the Australia” of North America in terms of lithium production given its highly robust mining industry and the latest ASX player cashing in is Summit Minerals (ASX:SUM).

The company has signed a binding term sheet to acquire 80% of the Castor project with a landholding of more than 118km2 in the rapidly emerging lithium-caesium-tantalum province of James Bay in Quebec, home to Alkem’s (ASX:AKE) 40.3Mt James Bay deposit and Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX:PMT) Corvette property.

Castor’s ground

Castor encompasses 232 mineral claims that cover 118km2 over two contiguous blocks within the northern end of the Yasinski Lake greenstone belt, where several pegmatite occurrences of unknown affinity are mapped within the 33km strike length.

It is here, on the same greenstone belt that TSX-V companies Ophir Gold (Radis lithium project) and Q2 Metals (Mia lithium project) can be found, a mere 18km and 32km southwest of Castor.

Although several bodies of pegmatite have been identified, SUM says the area lacks modern systematic exploration and lithium exploration has yet to be undertaken.

‘Obvious opportunity for value’

The company has also engaged Dahrouge Geological Consulting (DGC) to conduct the upcoming summer field exploration at the project, conditions permitting, which has been supported by a heavily oversubscribed two-tranche $1.5m placement.

SUM exploration manager Jonathan King says the acquisition represents a fantastic opportunity for shareholders.

“The project not only provides substantial scale but its easy access, proximity to other successful projects and having lithium experts DGC involved make this an obvious opportunity to create value.”

Canada: the new mineral frontier

The James Bay region is known for its significant mineral potential – particularly for hard rock lithium, and hosts numerous spodumene showings, four deposits with defined resources and more recent discoveries such Winsome’s (ASX:WR1) Adina deposit.

Quebec is also a highly regarded tier-1 jurisdiction for lithium exploration and production due to its support for resource development, access to skilled labour and proximity to Europe and North America’s rapidly growing electric vehicle markets.

The government is also committed to carbon reduction and building accessibility and availability of battery metals to develop a green economy, with renewable hydropower accounting for 99.8% of electricity produced.

Future exploration work

Summit says field exploration will begin on prospecting, mapping and geochemical sampling for the remainder of Q3 where the plan is to rapidly evaluate the prospectivity of the project and generate targets for drilling.

Additional immediate and near-term exploration workstreams include data compilation, permitting, stakeholder engagement, fieldwork planning, procurement, and logistics.