With its recent acquisition of the Express lithium project in the geologically bountiful region of James Bay, Canada, Recharge Metals is set for an exciting future.
Geoscience Australia’s recent report, ‘Australia’s Identified Mineral Resources’, ranked the country as number one in the world for lithium production, and number two for known lithium resources.
Overall, Australia accounted for 53 per cent of the world’s lithium supply in 2021.
Global lithium consumption is largely driven by the demand for rechargeable batteries, particularly in electric vehicles (EVs), and EV sales are projected to balloon over the next decade and beyond.
But while many companies rush to Western Australia for lithium, others, like Recharge Metals, have their sights set internationally.
Recharge Metals recently acquired the Express lithium project in the highly prospective James Bay region of Quebec, Canada, covering two contiguous claims across a 74-square-kilometre project area.
“What makes James Bay so unique is that it’s a relatively tight cluster of world-class lithium projects, and Express is located right in the middle of it,” Recharge managing director Felicity Repacholi-Muir told Australian Resources & Investment.
“Quebec is looking like it’s going to be one of the leading areas for not just lithium production, but also subsequent exploration of additional lithium projects.”
Just 12km to the north-west of Express is Allkem’s James Bay deposit, a mine capable of producing 321,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate per year. And 15km south-west is Cygnus Metals’ Pontax lithium project, which is returning high-grade assays of up to 5 per cent lithium oxide.
Cygnus recently acquired an additional 9km of strike on the Chambois Greenstone Belt which Express’ smaller claim block is located on, meaning Cygnus now closely neighbours the project. This demonstrates the growing competitiveness of the region, and Recharge Metals’ intelligence to establish ground.
Located to the north-east of Express is the Corvette project, owned Patriot Battery Metals – a company chaired by former Pilbara Minerals boss Ken Brinsden.
“The James Bay region itself is becoming particularly important in the lithium world,” Brinsden told the Resources Rising Stars Summer Series late last year.
“There has already been some discoveries, and there may well be more. But it’s a great place to be building a mine.”
Prior to Recharge’s acquisition, the Express project had never been explored for lithium.
“It’s a unique area to be in,” Repacholi-Muir said. “We’re first on ground for lithium exploration, which offers a whole host of opportunities, but we’re also in a renowned and highly prospective area.
“It’s not very often you see these kinds of grassroots projects just down the road from major lithium production hubs.”
While no exploration has taken place at Express, outcropping pegmatites are evident from satellite imagery, with high-priority pegmatites identified by the local government. This has led to the region being named the ‘spodumene suite’ by Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests.
Canada is considered a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction. Quebec, in particular, ranks eighth in the world for mining investment attractiveness, above South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania, according to the Fraser Institute’s latest annual survey of mining companies.
“It’s a lot simpler to raise funds to get a project off the ground when you’re working in a mining jurisdiction like Canada,” Repacholi-Muir said. “Lithium – with the electric vehicle market – is a fantastic commodity to get into. When you can pick up a project in an emerging world-class lithium province in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction, it’s simply too good to pass up.
“It ticked a lot of boxes for us and our shareholders.”
The lithium price has pulled back this year following the record highs of 2022 due to a drop in demand from China, but the battery metal is still trading at 18-month highs.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China currently processes 60 per cent of the world’s lithium chemicals, and 80 per cent of the world’s lithium hydroxide.
China sources much of the spodumene concentrate it needs to support its enormous EV industry from Australia, but the Chinese Government recently ended cash subsidies for households purchasing EVs. This has resulted in unsustainably high inventories of batteries and EVs, vendors being forced to sell at discounts, and lower demand for spodumene.
But China is not lithium’s growing market.
As Australian miners look to onshore lithium processing, they are turning to Europe and North America as more reliable long-term partners.
This means the Express project, being situated in Canada, is in an even more supreme location given North America’s growing EV industry.
And just because Express is new doesn’t mean its untouched.
The James Bay region has been historically explored for gold, which means an array of geological data – some of which refers to pegmatites in the land – is already available to aid lithium exploration.
“We’re also well supported by the excellent infrastructure in the area,” Repacholi-Muir said.
“We are less than 12km from the main highway and 15km from a well-resourced logistics hub with accommodation.
“What also puts the area in a unique position is its ability to produce lithium with green energy due to Quebec’s extensive hydropower network, which is key when you’re looking towards greener production for operations.”
In purchasing the Express project, Recharge Metals engaged a major stakeholder in the North American lithium space, DG Resource Management (DGRM), who first identified the Express project.
“The DGRM team is really well-versed in identifying prospective projects, so it’s exciting for us to have a relationship with them,” Repacholi-Muir said.
“They also identified Patriot’s Corvette project, which has been getting some amazing results of late.
“The fact that they’ve come on board with Express with quite a significant stake at 18.8 per cent really bodes well for the project.”
DGRM has a geological consulting arm, Dahrouge Geological, which will lend its services to Recharge for the development of Express.
“We’re working really closely with the Dahrouge team, who is well-versed in exploration for spodumene bearing pegmatites, and who know the geological terrain of Quebec,” Repacholi-Muir said.
“Our initial exploration activities will be boots-on-the-ground field mapping and surface sampling. That’ll be a helicopter-borne program.
“We will be traversing the project and going to all of these key target areas with the aim of identifying spodumene-bearing pegmatites, which we’re fully funded for.
“Once that’s done, a drilling campaign is set for later in the year.”
With exploration progressing at Express, Recharge Metals recently entered into a binding agreement to acquire the Wapistan lithium project in Canada, increasing the company’s James Bay landholding to 180 square kilometres. Wapistan is 120km north of Express.
“The Wapistan lithium project presents Recharge with a fantastic opportunity to acquire a ‘belt-scale’ project within the James Bay area,” Repacholi-Muir said.
“The easy access to Wapistan, its proximity to other highly successful projects, and having geological teams available nearby that can start quickly, make this an obvious opportunity to create value for Recharge’s investors.
“The company plans to be active throughout the summer field season at both Wapistan and Express once conditions permit, and we look forward to revealing the potential we see at both projects as findings warrant.”
This feature appeared in the June–July edition of Australian Resources & Investment.