Ultra Lithium Inc.’s Berland River property consists of two lithium brine projects located near Berland River within west-central Alberta, approximately 200 kilometers west of Edmonton. The Berland River properties consist of seven permit applications, which encompass about 650 square kilometers (7 Townships), within the area described by the Alberta Research Council’s report “Resource Estimates of Industrial Minerals in Alberta Formation Waters by Bachu, Yuan, Brulotte, 1995” of having the potential for the production and extraction of lithium from formation waters.
Within the region, formation waters within the Devonian-aged Woodbend (Leduc) Group and the Beaverhill Lake Formation are shown to contain highly anomalous concentrations of lithium, with values from >75 mg/l to 140 mg/l reported. A historic resource estimate distributed over a cumulative area of 3,980 square kilometers (approximately 43 townships), completed by the Alberta Research Council (1995, p.42), indicates total potential resources of 0.515 x 106 tonnes lithium in formation waters (or 2.4 billion lbs of LiO2) hosted in the Leduc and Beaverhill formation waters. This estimate is not NI43-101 compliant. The Alberta Research Council provides a non compliant 43-101 estimate of the lithium in formation waters in Leduc Formation reefs to vary from 10 to 570 g/m2 or tonnes/km2.
The Berland River properties being acquired by the company, cover a significant portion of this area. The company has not completed the work necessary to confirm the historic resource estimates – however the company believes the estimate relevant, but not reliable.
The concentrations are comparable to those of brines currently found at Clayton Valley, Nevada, which has been in production since the 1960s. Production at Clayton Valley was initially from brines that averaged 400 mg/l lithium; in 1998, production was reported at an average concentration of 160 mg/l lithium (Harben and Edwards, 1998).
Ultra will initiate the review of all historic geologic data from the properties in preparation for the sampling and analysis of formation waters. Following the collection of appropriate data, the company intends to seek completion of an up to date NI 43-101 Report.
