Platinex Confirms Tantalum Discovery at Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project, NW Ontario - Seite 2

“Tantalum is not easily found in economic concentrations, so these very early indications are particularly interesting as they shine a light on the Axe Lake Deformation Zone and the structural control of the mineralization in a major fault system,” says Dr. Fred Breaks, Geological Advisor, “Of interest, is the ratio of niobium to tantalum which suggests that tantalum was being concentrated compared to niobium. The significance of the other rare metals found in these grab samples serve as indicators to the tantalum, which in today’s world, has the higher value.”

The field examination of the 6,175-hectare Axe Lake claim block occurred from September 4-10, 2023, and included collecting 62 grab samples in two confined areas of the large claim block (see Figure 1). The work focused on an initial evaluation of lithium and related rare metals (Cs, Rb, Ga, Nb, and Ta). Also, it examined specific interelement magmatic indicator ratios as a function of granitic pegmatite rock type.

Figure 1: Muskrat Dam Critical Minerals Project

The ALDZ represents part of a significant regional fault zone system that extends at least 70 km northwest into the Sachigo-Ponask lakes area and into Manitoba, where lithium pegmatite mineralization (petalite) occurs at Red Sucker Lake. Deep crustal fault systems importantly represent S-type peraluminous pegmatitic granite generation sites via anatexis of clastic metasedimentary protoliths and as conduits for the emplacement of resulting fractionated granitic pegmatitic melts to higher crustal levels. Many rare metal pegmatite groups in the Superior Province of northwestern Ontario occur within major ductile deformation zones, most notably in the Bearhead Lake deformation zone (“BLDZ”), 160 km southwest of Axe Lake, where Frontier Lithium¹ has established resources of 26 mt (M&I) of 1.62% Li₂O and 32.4 mt (Inferred) 1.41% Li₂O. Complex-type, petalite-subtype pegmatites are now known over a 54 km strike length of the BLDZ with the recent discovery by Blaze Minerals Ltd.²

The Axe Lake pegmatite group also compares with the 0.5 by 14 km Red Sucker Lake, Manitoba pegmatite group, situated 155 km northwest, which contains a petalite pegmatite zone with a range of 0.57 to 1.48% Li₂O.³ The pegmatitic groups in both areas show a significant overlap of data fields in the Nb vs. Ta and Cs vs. Rb diagrams, further supporting a similar fertile granite system at Axe Lake along the same regional fault system. Possible fertile parent granite bodies may exist in the batholithic areas immediately northeast of the ALDZ in the Severn River area adjacent to the greenstone belt boundary.