https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/
The Northwest Territories capital city of Yellowknife is emerging as a northern link in North America’s electric vehicle supply chain. Already home to Canada’s only rare earths mine, a 160-kilometers (100 miles) area around this northern mining town happens to be enriched with the lithium and cobalt that is in massive demand for EV batteries, along with numerous other minerals critical to both Canada and the United States.
A roughly 9,600-square-kilometer (3,700 square miles) area that extends 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Yellowknife to Vital Metal Ltd.’s Nechalacho rare earths mine is riddled with hardrock lithium sources known as pegmatites.
Though this Yellowknife Pegmatite Province was first identified roughly 80 years ago, the market for lithium found in the distinctive white crystalline rock formations that gives this province its middle name was minuscule until the rise of lithium-ion batteries that power cordless electronics and now EVs.
With soaring demand driving the price of lithium to stratospheric levels, a group of battery metals-focused junior mining companies are investing millions of dollars this year to explore the distinctive white pegmatites that can be seen when flying over the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province.
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