Falcon Gold stakes claims near lithium discovery, shares rise
Falcon Gold Corp. [FG-TSXV, 3FA, GR] said Friday it has doubled the size of its Hope Brook project in Newfoundland, picking up ground near the maritime province’s first reported discovery of significant lithium mineralization.
The company said it has now staked a total of 1,660 claims, covering 41,500 hectares, which are strategically located and contiguous to First Mining Gold Corp. [FF-TSX, FFMGF-OTCQX, FMG-Frankfurt, Sokoman-Benton and Marvel Discovery Corp. [MARV-TSXV, MARVF-OTCQB, 04T1-Frankfurt].
After forming a gold exploration alliance, Sokoman and Benton recently made headlines by announcing a lithium pegmatite discovery at Hope Brook, less than 400 metres from Falcon’s newly expanded property boundary.
Sokoman and Benton said the area containing lithium-bearing pegmatite dykes, now known as The Kraken Pegmatite Swarm, measures approximately 2.2 kilometres long by 0.85 kilometres wide. They said assays from rock samples have shown that the dyke system contains economic grades of lithium (including 1.04% Li20), is widespread and open along strike.
“The highly prospective ground held by Falcon shows various lithium clusters that may extend on the company’s ground,” Falcon said in a press release. Falcon is currently evaluating the data from government reports, which include high-resolution radiometric and magnetic surveys.
Falcon shares advanced on the news, rising 10% to 11 cents on volume of 256,000. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 16 cents and $0.075.
Falcon Gold is an Americas focused exploration company. In Ontario, its portfolio of projects includes the flagship Central Canada gold project, which is located 21.5 kilometres east of Atikokan, and about 160 kilometres west of Thunder Bay and 20 kilometres southeast of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.’s (AEM-TSX, AEM-NYSE) Hammond Reef gold deposit.
The company holds six additional gold projects: the Camping Lake gold property and Springpole west property near Red Lake, Ont.; a 49% stake in the Burton gold property with Iamgold Corp [IMG-TSX, IAG-NYSE] near Sudbury, Ont.; in British Columbia, the Spitfire-Sunny Boy and Gaspard gold claims; and most recently the Hope Brook.
Falcon CEO Karim Rayani said the Sokoman-Benton discovery speaks to the multi-commodity nature of the large land package which his company has acquired. “Falcon’s land is situated in a very active structural corridor, giving us a tremendous opportunity for finding the next potential discovery in this camp,” he said.
Within this immediate area, the most significant deposit is the Hope Brook gold mine, which was in production from 1987 to 1997, producing 752,163 ounces of gold. The Hope Brook, now owned by First Mining, has since been optioned to Big Ridge Exploration, which has outlined an additional 6.33 million tonnes at an average grade of 4.68 g/t gold or 954,000 ounces in the indicated and inferred categories.