Mining Technology

Daily Newsletter

09 August 2023

Daily Newsletter

BMM wins exploration permit for Canada lithium project

BMM agreed to acquire the Gorge lithium project through an earn-in method in July 2022.

Balkan Mining and Minerals (BMM) has received a three-year exploration permit for the Gorge lithium project in Canada from the Ontario Ministry of Mines.

With the permit, BMM can now begin site works for the planned drill programmes that will focus on areas of interest that have been previously identified, including Nelson and Koshman pegmatites.

Balkan Mining and Minerals managing director Ross Cotton said: “BMM is excited to continue working in northern Ontario’s lithium district.

"The award of this exploration permit allows us to implement a drill programme across the exciting targets that our team have identified over the course of mapping, channelling and soil sampling over the past 12 months. We look forward to continuing to engage and collaborate with local First Nations communities throughout the course of the planned work.”

Located in the Georgia Lake pegmatite district of northern Ontario, 200km north-east of Thunder Bay, the Gorge lithium project has 12 claims, including 11 multi-cell claims.

The mine covers an area of 45.1km² and consists of two known pegmatite occurrences, Nelson and Koshman.

Historical works in the region carried out in the 1950s have identified up to 40 lithium and beryllium-bearing pegmatites in an area covering 600km².

Analysis of the samples retrieved from the project returned values of up to 3.22% of lithium oxide with an average of 2.24%.

BMM entered an agreement with project owner Ombabika Group to acquire a 100% interest in the Gorge project. The deal is expected to take place via a four-staged earn-in method over a period of up to three-and-a-half years.

ESG 2.0 marks a shift towards stricter environmental rules

ESG is moving into a different era, which we call ESG 2.0. While ESG 1.0 was driven by voluntary corporate action, spurred by pressure from activist consumers and investors, ESG 2.0 is being driven by a new wave of government policies. The EU has taken the regulatory lead, with rules introduced or in the pipeline that will price emissions, regulate the use of the terms ‘ESG’ and ‘sustainability’ in marketing materials, and make ESG reporting mandatory. The US has taken a different approach, favoring less regulation and more financial support in the form of tax breaks for clean industry (renewables plus nuclear and hydrogen). China is planning to expand its emissions trading system to more sectors, decarbonize its heavy industry, and ramp up its use of renewables. The new policy direction is mainly motivated by the ambition to hit net zero emissions targets. But on top of this, governments are now competing for clean industry and trying to challenge China’s leadership on the production of the world’s green technologies such as solar panels and batteries, as well as the production and refinement of materials needed for energy transition such as lithium. These driving forces are leading to policy that will impact every sector, not just heavy industry, and will keep ESG near the top of the regulatory agenda over the longer term.