Platinex Confirms Tantalum Discovery at Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project, NW Ontario

TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Platinex Inc. (CSE: PTX) (OTCQB: PANXF, Frankfurt: 9PX) (“Platinex” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce results from fieldwork at the Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project which covers key portions of the Muskrat Dam Lake greenstone belt in Northwest Ontario. Field observations and bulk rock chemical data from samples collected at the Axe Lake claim block in September 2023 have revealed anomalous levels of rare metals (Rb, Cs, Ta, Nb) and lithium. Although historical government mapping indicated favourable geology in the area, this exploration program was the first time to target rare metals and represents the confirmation of rare metal values in the Axe Lake Deformation Zone (“ALDZ”) in the Muskrat Dam Lake greenstone belt. The Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project is held by Green Canada Corporation (GCC), in which Platinex has majority equity ownership.

The Muskrat Dam Project is located in Northwestern Ontario, approximately 125 km northeast of Frontier Lithium’s PAK lithium project and 125 km northwest of Newmont’s Musselwhite gold mine.

Highlights of the discovery include:

• chemically evolved, tourmaline-muscovite granitic pegmatite dyke swarm exposed over a
• minimum 0.5 by 2.2 km area on the Severn River
• beryl-type pegmatites with anomalous Rubidium (Rb) (845 ppm), Cesium (Cs) (42 ppm), Tantalum (Ta) (158 ppm), Niobium Nb (64 ppm), and Lithium (Li) (141 ppm)
• highest Tantalum 158 ppm or 225 times its mean upper continental crust value
• 40% of Nb/Ta ratios are below 2.0, signifying extreme fractionation
• pegmatite distribution controlled by Axe Lake Deformation Zone (ALDZ), a major ductile transcurrent fault system with 30 km inferred strike length on property
• similar deep crustal fault zones host rare metal pegmatite systems elsewhere, such as the Pakeagama Lake lithium pegmatite group in the Bearhead Lake deformation zone
• similarity of tectonic setting and lithochemistry to the Red Sucker Lake lithium pegmatite group, 160 km northwest in Manitoba, ostensibly in the same regional fault system

“The Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project was originally staked for its copper/nickel prospectivity, but the comprehensive work by Dr. Breaks and Mr. Osmani on the Axe Lake Deformation Zone has added a significant new aspect to the project,” says Greg Ferron, President and CEO, Platinex Inc.