Infinity Stone Ventures Corp (CSE:GEMS) announced that the drill program at its Rockstone graphite project has begun, in a corporate update released Thursday.
Thus far, the program has recovered its first core sample from the RS-22-01 drill hole, a twinned hole of the GC-12-01 discovery hole, which intercepted 25% curium over 24 meters.
Overall, Infinity Stone has been active with the exploration of its four core battery metal projects, with extensive prospecting and preliminary work being done ahead of planned and ongoing drilling programs.
READ: Infinity Stone Ventures to send pegmatite sample from Galaxy lithium project in Quebec for analysis by LGC Standards
"Battery metals, and lithium specifically, have been one of the only performing asset classes over the past year, in a volatile economic climate driven by inflation and rising interest rates,” CEO Zayn Kalyan said in a statement. “We have stayed true to our goal of providing a diversified investment platform for battery metals and believe we are still in the early stages of a market that is about to take off."
The company pointed to a bevy of short-term catalysts for growth. In addition to the Rockstone drill program, metallurgical work at the project refining discovery core to battery grade is ongoing and expected to be completed in the next six weeks.
Meanwhile, the company is awaiting assay results of samples from its Hellcat/Camaro, Galaxy and Zen-Whoberi projects, which are currently in-lab. Infinity Stone said it has planned an extensive geophysics program from those areas over the next 30 days.
Additional drill programs are expected in the first quarter of 2023, the company said.
"It seems that on a nearly daily basis there are announcements of investment and development in the lithium-ion battery supply chain in North America,” Kalyan said. “From new battery metal processing infrastructure to EV manufacturing plants, it is quickly becoming evident that Quebec and Ontario are at the epicentre of a major shift of investment from government and the private sector.”
He continued, “With major manufacturers such as Tesla, Mercedes and VW making direct investment in battery metal mining and exploration companies, it is an unprecedented time to be in this industry, and Infinity Stone is ideally positioned."
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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