Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Core being cleaned before analysis. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
VANCOUVER, STOUGHTON- This past summer saw EMP Metals drill a step-out exploration well just southwest of Stoughton, core it and test it for lithium. And the results showed some of the higher numbers for lithium concentrations announced in Saskatchewan to date.
If that name sounds unfamiliar, it’s because previously the work was done under the name of Hub City Lithium, which was a joint venture between EMP Metals of Vancouver (75 per cent) and ROK Resources of Regina (25 per cent). On Sept. 19, the closure was announced in a deal that saw ROK swap its 25 per cent interest in Hub City for 17 per cent ownership of EMP Metals. And thus, going forward, EMP Metals will be the name used.
Two exploration wells were drilled roughly 12 kilometres south-southwest of Stoughton in 2023, right near the edge of the Viewfield Crater. That’s an “astrobleme,” or impact crater, from a meteor that struck around 190 million years ago. The 2.5 kilometre-wide crater was buried by roughly 1,00 metres of sediment since then. It’s too significant of a geological feature to ignore, given its proximity to the initial test wells, so part of the reasoning behind the step-out exploration work done this past summer was to determine the broader extent of the lithium resource on what is now EMP’s lands in the Stoughton/Viewfield area.
This past August EMP cut 72 metres of core covering most of the target Duperow formation, which has been the focus of most of the lithium exploration in Saskatchewan to date. But in addition to the Duperow, Saskatchewan lithium exploration companies are also exploring other formations to see if they, too, are prospective for lithium-bearing brine. And in EMP’s case, that’s exactly what they found.
A piece of core from EMP’s 8-24 well near Stoughton being retrieved from the wellbore. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Reorganization
Pipeline Online spoke at length to EMP president Rob Gamley by phone on Oct. 8.
As part of the company’s mid-September reorganization, Gamley stepped down from the CEO role, handing over those reigns to Karl Kottmeier, who had been a company director since November, 2023. Gamley maintained the president role as well as a directorship.
He explained that the ownership structure changes hasn’t changed the pace or how quickly they are developing the project. The ROK management team has stayed on board, and has clearly shown confidence in it. Gamley said, “I think it speaks volumes, peeling back the layers that, in their management contract, they elected to take shares instead of hard dollars, and those shares were subject to the same escrow provisions as the shares issued to ROK shareholders for the EMP interest.
“It’s pretty impressive, even from my view, rather than collecting a monthly check or salary, getting that in stock, I think that really speaks to their commitment and the vision and the belief in the quality of this project.”
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Latest results
Their latest well, 8-24 well is located 10 kilometres north of initial discovery well 2-22. That initial discovery well hit concentrations of 259 milligrams per litre (mg/L), the highest yet publicly announced in Saskatchewan.
Well 8-24 returned 157 mg/L in the Wymark D zone, and confirmed significant lithium presence across multiple tested zones in the Duperow formation, according to EMP, “reinforcing the company’s confidence in the continuity of its resource base. Five of eight zones were tested, with standout lithium concentrations of 157 mg/L in the Wymark D zone and 139 mg/L in the Wymark C zone, demonstrating consistency with previous Viewfield results.”
Coring operations at 8-24. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Key points include the successful identification of new lithium-bearing zones, including the Souris River zone which tested at 72 mg/L, indicates further potential for resource expansion.
Preliminary data suggests that lithium concentrations remain consistent across EMP Metals’ land base, strongly supporting the hypothesis of a contiguous resource, the company said.
Asked about the variance of concentrations from their initial wells, which were as high as 259 mg/L, Gamley said, “This well was highly significant in that it was a fairly big step-out, 10 kilometres from the first Viewfield discovery well.”
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He added, “Five zones tested at greater or equal to 72 milligrams per liter, with a maximum up to 157 milligrams per liter in the Wymark D. So these results are actually within predicted ranges and the ranges predicted in the initial resource assessment. So it still remains to be seen. The 2-22, the 259 milligrams, if that’s the best that’s ever going to be drilled, or could have been drilled. It’s tough to say, but these results are still well within the ranges predicted. And we are seeing that continuity across our land base.”
He pointed out seeing the elevated high concentrations in the Duperow, relative to the analogous Leduc formation in Alberta.
Somewhere in this core might be answers to the lithium question. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Another formation of interest
Regarding the exploration into the deeper Souris River formation, which is just below the Duperow, and whether that indicates another formation that could possibly be exploited for further development, Gamley said, “It certainly does. This was a previously untested zone for us. We’ll be able to add that additional resource, because we believe it’s present over the entire Viewfield and Mansur areas, which wasn’t included in our maiden NI 43-101 resource. So right now, it’s in progress where we’re in the process of updating that resource assessment, working closely with our qualified persons, which we believe will result in not only an upgrade of the total size, but also quality and certainty of the resource.”
As for the zones tested, the concentrations are notable. Asked if there’s enough flowrates for volume to make it work, Gamley said, “Yeah, I think that’s key of the work that’s currently underway.
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“We did cut a section of core 72 metres through almost the entire Duperow section. The analysis of that will provide invaluable data on porosity, permeability, density and lithography, all of which will be used to build a reservoir model for the upcoming FEED (Front End Engineering Design) study.
“I think that once we get all that analysis, and put it in the FEED study, we’ll be able to better answer that question.”
Drilling the 8-24 well near Stoughton on Aug. 13. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Horizontal well
“Additionally, we’ve completed the dual-leg horizontal well into the Wymark D zone. So far, from what we’ve seen, we do fully expect it to be a very good producer from the zone, which you indicated had the highest concentrations. Each leg encountered around 700 metres of good to excellent-quality reservoir rock. And, again, we’re quite confident that using the horizontal well is going to be able to optimize the flow rates, especially compared to vertical wells. It should be roughly two to four times the flow rate compared to what we were seeing in the vertical wells of 500 to 600 metres cubed per day.”
He said they’d like to see 2,000 cubic metres per day.
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Smaller facilities
Gamley said their initial Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on a broad scale looked at a 20,000 tonne per annum operation. But they’re currently looking at smaller, 3,000 tonne per year facilities which can be “cut and pasted” across EMP’s landholdings. This is part of the FEED study, which will in turn nail down the CAPEX and OPEX.
“This FEED study should get us to something bankable,” he said, noting it is expected in December of this year. ROK Resources will be “leaned on heavily” for their experience.
Part of the work towards commercialization is finalizing the Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology vendor. Their pilot project in Estevan ran over the course of the summer, and eluate from that was processed in Vancouver.
“We’ve run what’s called a pilot 10 with our downstream refiner, that is Saltworks. So that processed a lot of the Koch eluate from our field pilot, and we’ll be getting 25 kilograms of lithium carbonate. We should have that analysis as to the purity within the next few weeks, and it’s a nice size that we’ll have available to give to offtakers for samples.”
“We’re definitely advancing the development of the Viewfield project, and we are looking at further exploration and expansion across our projects.”
EMP has also been working in the Mansur area, closer to Weyburn.
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Other notes
On Oct. 4, EMP Metals announced the closure of a non-brokered private placement of common shares of the company by issuing 4,266,680 shares at a price of $0.30 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,280,004.
Tembo Capital Holdings UK Ltd. exercised its right to purchase those shares in order to maintain its partially diluted interest immediately prior to its issuance of 17,085,000 common shares pursuant to the company’s acquisition of 25 common shares of Hub City Lithium Corp. from ROK Resources Inc.
Tembo’s participation is considered to be a “related party transaction” as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101”). The Company relied on the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(a) of MI 61-101 on the basis that the participation in the Offering by Tembo will not exceed 25% of the fair market value of the Company’s market capitalization.
The net proceeds of the offering will be used by the company for development costs of the Saskatchewan lithium properties and for general corporate and working capital purposes. The offered shares are subject to a hold period expiring on February 3, 2025.
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