by Greg Klein | November 20, 2018

Expanding its portfolio of energy metals, 92 Resources TSXV:NTY moves into a vanadium exploration region in eastern British Columbia. The 3,735-hectare Silver Sands property sits directly east of Ethos Gold’s (TSXV:ECC) Pine Pass project, where a recent trenching program brought results including 0.48% V₂O₅ over 130 metres, part of a cumulative, non-continuous extent averaging 0.43% V₂O₅ over 218 metres. Ethos reports approximately 20 kilometres of subcrop strike distance on the property.

Silver Sands hosts similar features, 92 states. The company interprets the property’s rock types as “an adjacent thrust sheet, of analogous or identical lithologies” to those at Pine Pass, with both properties hosting “regionally mapped early Triassic-aged Spray River Group rocks (containing the Toad River and Grayling formations), which have been known to host vanadium-bearing horizons associated with phosphatic shales.

“Specifically, the project is host to the Lemoray phosphate prospect, a phosphatic horizon which has been historically noted in the academic literature, but its relation to vanadium mineralization has not yet been tested.”

92 hopes to begin initial field work once snow melts, says Neil McCallum of Dahrouge Geological Consulting.

92 president/CEO Adrian Lamoureux said the acquisition suits the company’s strategic plans. “With a focus on future energy metals such as lithium and frac sand, we have now positioned the company with a key vanadium asset in a mine-friendly jurisdiction. We will now evaluate and put together our winter exploration plans that should contain our Phase I drill program at the Corvette-FCI lithium project in Quebec.”

An option signed in September with Osisko Mining TSX:OSK gives 92 a 75% earn-in on the 10,000-hectare FCI claims adjacent to the flagship Corvette project. Corvette channel samples released that month averaged 1.35% Li₂O, along with tantalum averaging 109 ppm Ta₂O₅.

Vanadium prices now approach an all-time high, having jumped over 550% since September 2016, Lamoureux added. Chinese steel accounts for most demand but vanadium-redox flow batteries offer additional future potential.

Pine Pass regional infrastructure includes Highway 97, the Canadian National Railway, transmission lines and natural gas pipelines.

92 gets Silver Sands by paying staking costs of $15,000, while the vendor keeps a 2% NSR.

In addition to Silver Sands and Corvette, the company holds three other Quebec lithium projects, Pontax, Eastmain and Lac du Beryl, as well as the Golden frac sand project in southern B.C.

Read more about 92 Resources.