Electra Battery Materials Corporation (TSX-V:ELBM, NASDAQ:ELBM) reported an updated mineral resource estimate (2023 MRE) for its Iron Creek cobalt-copper project in the Idaho Cobalt Belt, a 34-mile-long formation containing some of the largest primary cobalt deposits in North America, that paves the way for exploration activities and development of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA).
“Continued exploration and development of the Idaho Cobalt Belt will help to reduce North America’s reliance on foreign sources of cobalt supply particularly as demand for critical minerals will grow exponentially in the coming years,” said Electra CEO Trent Mell said in a statement.
“Our updated mineral resources estimate, which reflects the encouraging results of drill programs completed to date, paves the way for continued exploration activities and development of a PEA.”
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The authors of the 2023 MRE recommend that the Iron Creek project move to a two-phased work program. Phase one would include exploration drilling to drill off the Ruby Zone, step out from the current resource at 100 meters (m) step-outs, and evaluate the CAS target area.
A phase two program would be conditional on favourable results from phase 1 and include the completion of a PEA and updated technical report in phase 2.
The Iron Creek project consists of mining patents and exploration claims over an area of 3,300 hectares covering the strike extent of strata hosting mineralization.
The company said that the 2023 MRE was prepared for a potential underground scenario with a US$87 net smelter return (NSR) cut-off grade.
Electra highlighted the following:
- Indicated resource of 4.4 million tons grading at 0.19% cobalt for 18.4 million pounds cobalt and grading at 0.73% copper for 71.5 million pounds of copper;
- Inferred resource of 1.2 million tons grading at 0.08% cobalt for 2.1 million pounds of cobalt and grading at 1.34% copper for 36.5 million pounds of copper;
- As a result of infill and step-out drilling completed to date, Electra has upgraded 54% of the Inferred Resource category of the 2019 MRE to the Indicated category in 2023;
- The mineral resource area of the Iron Creek project covers an area of 1,652m strike length at a 780m width and extends to a height of 852 metres;
- Within the Iron Creek project boundary, there are seven documented occurrences of metallic mineralization exposed at the surface or encountered by drilling. Iron Creek is the main mineralized body and Ruby is the second most important occurrence.
Investors can see the 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate in table format here.
The Toronto-based processor of battery materials said that additional drilling is recommended to connect isolated intercepts on the east and at-depth with the resource area and advance the Ruby target to increase the inferred mineral resource.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive