Renowned as a producer of hydrocarbons and sulphur, Canada’s Alberta province has little other pedigree in either metallic or industrial minerals. But, there are now at least seven companies with extensive Metallic and Industrial Mineral (MAIM) permits on west central Alberta lands that overly deep formation waters containing anomalous lithium values.
These have been compared with Nevada’s Silver Peak resource. Silver Peak’s shallower-lying playa brine was the first of its type to be exploited for lithium in 1966 by Foote Mineral Co. (now Chemetall Foote), with the major advantage of solar pre-concentration under the hot Nevada sun and wind.
Alberta is different. The host geological setting of the anomalous lithium values is deep at 2,600-3,500 metres below surface and commercially unprecedented. The Albertan climate disallows established solar pre-concentration methods. The oilfield brine chemistry is complex and, despite comparisons with Silver Peak, low in lithium...