Caracle Creek’s professional team includes specialized expertise in lithium and rare-element exploration and in particular, LCT Pegmatites:
- Program design and guidance on regional exploration techniques.
- Design and manage QA/QC programs; independent QA/QC reviews of assays.
- Mineral identification.
- Geochemical interpretation of bulk whole rock and bulk mineral assays.
- Mineral Resource Estimations.
- Independent Technical Report Writing (compliance: SAMREC, JORC, NI 43-101).
LCT and Rare-Element Pegmatites
Granitic rare-element pegmatites (i.e. LCT, NYF) host potentially economic commodities such as lithium (spodumene and petalite), tantalum (Ta-oxide minerals), niobium, tin (cassiterite), rubidium (lepidolite and K-feldspar), cesium (pollucite), and ceramic grade feldspar and quartz.
While exploration techniques and deposit models for most economic deposits (i.e., gold, copper, nickel, platinum, lead and zinc) are well known to the majority of geologists, exploration techniques for lithium deposits are less understood by geologists. The identification of common pegmatite minerals such as cleavelandite, aplite, spodumene, petalite, and beryl are essential to the process. At Caracle Creek, we utilise our extensive knowledge of the pegmatite deposit model of fractionation of pegmatite dykes from the parental granite outward and inward fractionation within individual pegmatite bodies.
Lithium is used as a major component in lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles. The current lithium rush by the exploration industry is due to the rise in the price of lithium related to the global increased interest in greener vehicles (i.e., electric and hybrid cars). Because of its light weight and high power capacity, lithium batteries are preferred for electronic devices such as computers, cameras and cell phones. Lithium metal and compounds has a variety of uses from lightweight aerospace alloys to ceramics and glass to lubricants to pharmaceuticals and other industrial and military applications. Tantalum’s major application in the electronics industry is in the manufacture of capacitors which are found in cell phones, video cameras and laptop computers. Tantalum is also used as an alloy in the manufacture of turbine blades for power stations and jet engines.