Cruz Battery secures lithium drilling permit
Cruz Battery Metals Corp. [CRUZ-CSE, BKTPF-OTC Pink, A3CWU7-Frankfurt] said Friday it has secured a permit to drill its Solar Lithium project in Nevada.
The Solar project directly borders American Lithium Corp.’s [LI-TSXV, LIACF-OTCQB, 5LA1-Frankfurt] Tonopah Lithium Project (TLC) claims, which are estimated to contain 5.37 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in the measure and indicated category and another 1.76 million tonnes in the inferred category.
Cruz said it has received the drill permit from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after recently encountering values of up to 1,610 ppm Li from a sampling program at its Solar Lithium project in Nevada.
Cruz said it plans to be drilling the Solar project shortly, using information provided by the recent sample program, designed to test high grade target areas.
The company said lithium prices have exploded to all-time highs and investor interest in Nevada lithium stocks. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the price of lithium recently jumped 25% month-on-month due to the lack of product availability.
TLC is located in the Esmeralda lithiuim district in Nevada and 3.5 hours south of the Tesla Motors Ltd.’s [TSLA-NASDAQ] Gigafactory. TLC is located in the same basinal environment as Albemarle Corp.’s [ALB-NYSE] Silver Peak lithium mine as well as several advancing deposits, including Cypress Development Corp.’s [CYP-TSXV] Clayton Valley project.
Cruz Battery has said it recently encountered five separate sample results of over 1,059 ppm Li, including grades as high as 1,610 ppm Li on the newly acquired Solar lithium project.
“We strongly believe that battery metals will continue to garner significant market attention as the demand for lithium-ion batteries continues to increase along with the explosive growth of the electric vehicle industry,” said Cruz President Jim Nelson.
He said the company plans to drill near the boarder with American Lithium’s TLC project.
Cruz currently has 13 properties located throughout North America, consisting of five in Ontario, four in British Columbia, two in Idaho and two in Nevada.
The company is one of the largest landholders in the historic silver-cobalt producing region of Cobalt, Ontario, with five separate projects in the camp. Those projects are in the vicinity of First Cobalt Corp’s (FCC-TSXV, FTSSF-OTCQB, FCC-ASX) Ontario cobalt refinery.
In December, 2020, the government of Canada and the government of Ontario announced a joint $10 million investment in the First Cobalt refinery to help accelerate commissioning and expansion.
“Cruz Battery Metals Corp will be focused on acquiring and developing high-quality battery metals projects in politically stable, environmentally responsible and ethical mining jurisdictions, essential for the rapidly growing rechargeable battery and renewable energy sectors,” Nelson said.
On October 28,2021, Cruz Battery shares closed at 15.5 cents and trade in a 52-week range of 17.5 cents and $0.04.