Vancouver’s Power Metals is promoting its Case Lake Cesium Project as a “globally significant” source of cesium after posting the first mineral resource estimate of its deposit in the Cochrane area of northeastern Ontario.
The company released a maiden inferred mineral resource on June 5 showing 13,000 tonnes of cesium, grading 2.40 per cent at the West Joe dykes area of its property, 80 kilometres east of Cochrane, near the Quebec border.
In mining, an inferred resource means a deposit has limited geological evidence and sampling to properly access its quality and grade. An indicated resource provides a higher degree of confidence based on more detailed exploration.
The estimate was based on more than 7,200 metres of drilling and 113 drill holes, staggering out over various exploration drilling programs in 2018, 2022 and 2024.
Power Metals proclaims Case Lake is the world’s fourth largest cesium resource behind three other hard rock cesium mines at Tanco in Manitoba, Bikita in Zimbabwe and Sinclair in Western Australia.
Based on the high-grade drill intercepts near surface, the company views this project is a potential open-pit mine. There’s also high-grade lithium and tantalum in the mix.
Cesium is a rare element used as drilling fluid in the petroleum exploration and for aerospace, electronic and medical treatment applications.
Power Metals believes its only scratched the surface at Case Lake.
The exploration team has identified an additional exploration target estimated to hold between 11,000 and 15,000 tonnes of cesium. The company said there are 17 more untested targets west of this area, providing “excellent potential to expand the resource profile.”
“The majority of the pollucite bearing pegmatites remain unconstrained and open to an exceptional potential of further growth as represented with the current exploration target at West Joe,” said Power Metals CEO Haydn Daxter in a statement.
This igneous rock is a type of granite pegmatite containing the mineral pollucite. It’s considered a significant source of cesium.
Power Metals Chair Johnathan More added the company is on the fast track to develop Case Lake “to be Ontario’s first critical minerals project in production.”
“To achieve this target, we engaged in the MRE (mineral resource estimate) at the infancy of exploration drilling to target cesium and look forward to the growth that remains in the property for the company and the state of Ontario.”
If everything falls into place, a May 2025 company investor presentation shows the project permitting process beginning in the fourth quarter of this year with the commissioning of a processing facility forecasted by the second quarter of 2026, followed by the start of mine production in the third quarter.
The stock of TSX-V-listed company has surged in the last six months, from $0.41 at the end of January to $$1,45 in late February before settling to $0.91 as of June 9.
