Rover Metals Corp. ("Rover" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has submitted its Plan of Operations (the "Plan") permit application for its Let's Go Lithium ("LGL") project to the Bureau of Land Management, Nevada division.
LGL Property Map. Image Credit: Rover Metals Corp.
LGL Project
The LGL project is a claystone sedimentary lithium project located in a flat playa in an ancient volcanic lakebed. The claim block, which is approximately 8,300 acres in size, includes several limestone-capped butte-like outcrop formations. As released on September 7, 2023, a successful Phase 1 surface sampling program has returned multiple high-grade surface lithium samples. The clay body, as it's known today, is believed to have very little overburden, and at the southern boundary of the project the lithium rich clay is exposed at the surface, or above surface in butte outcrops. Project infrastructure includes hydro power lines on site, direct road access, access to the Union Pacific rail line, and the nearby town of Pahrump with a readily available work force.
Regional Geology
The project is located within the prolific southwest Nevada claystone lithium jurisdiction. LGL is located just 12 km away from the historic Franklin Wells hectorite (a rare lithium smectite mineral) deposit. Mining at Franklin Wells dates back to the 1920's. The regional geology of the Amargosa Valley is a basin-and-range structure with the Greenwater Range and Funeral Mountains to the west and the Amargosa Desert to the east. The Greenwater/Funeral mountains are fault-controlled with narrow interior valleys and are bounded by broad, coalescing alluvial fans. The Greenwater/Funeral mountains are composed of lower Paleozoic marine and metamorphic rocks. LGL is located in a large basin of clay rich Tertiary lakebed sediments, the major host rock for the other lithium claystone deposits in the southwest Nevada lithium jurisdiction. Lhoist North America has been open pit mining the specialty clays in the area since 1974.
Later-stage company comparable claystone lithium projects in southwest Nevada include Century Lithium Corp.'s Clayton Valley project; American Lithium's TLC project; Noram Lithium's Zeus project, and Nevada Lithium's Bonnie Claire project. All of the aforementioned companies are later-stage mining companies, with a NI 43-101 resource calculation.
LGL Plan
Rover has been working with UES since August 2023 on the Plan. An integral part of the Plan, is the water table flow model, developed by UES' Principal Hydrologist - Dwight Smith PE, PG, CHg, and team. The Company, through UES, is expecting to start baseline environmental surveys in the early spring of 2024.
Judson Culter, CEO at Rover Metals, states, "The Plan was developed to ensure that there will be no impact to the critical water tables and sensitive biological resources in the Amargosa basin. Dwight Smith has over 20 years of hydrogeology experience working in the Amargosa basin. Rover and UES have obtained a copy of the Plan of Operations and Environmental Assessment study that the neighbouring mine, operated by Lhoist North America, is operating under. Lhoist has been mining in the area for over 50 years, and their Plan of Operations was most recently updated in 1992. Management at Rover, and UES, feel confident that sustainable lithium mining can be supported in the Amargosa Valley."
A Call for Battery Recycling Partnerships and Joint Ventures
Management of the company will continue their outreach efforts, with assistance from the Nevada State Governor's Office, to explore partnerships with the Las Vegas-based battery recycling community in H1 of 2024. The eastern Amargosa Valley has been slated for solar farm energy development by the BLM. Solar energy, in addition to the existing hydro energy infrastructure in the area, allows for new development opportunities like EV raw materials battery recycling. Rover is seeking inbound requests to partner with recycling technology companies. The LGL project is a one and half hour drive from the city of Las Vegas, one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S.
Resignation of Director
Eugene Hodgson has resigned as a director of the Company. Mr. Hodgson was an integral part of Rover's early growth years, helping the Company establish a presence in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The resignation of Mr. Hodgson coincides with management's efforts to focus on lithium resource development in Nevada. The Company is seeking to add new directors with experience in Nevada over the coming weeks and months. Mr. Hodgson will stay on in an advisory consulting capacity with the Company on an as-needed basis.
Source: https://rovermetals.com/