Lithium ore generation and characterization

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Lithium isotope research in support of lithium ore exploration**Vancouver-based Lithium Americas Corp. is developing their wholly owned Lithium Nevada Project at Kings**Valley, hosted in claystones of the Miocene aged McDermitt Caldera in Nevada, USA. This is the largest**known lithium resource in the United States. Currently, lithium mining focuses on enriched brines from**evaporative basins in volcanic terrains or on lithium-rich pegmatite deposits. The Kings Valley deposit in clays**offers an abundant and interesting alternative that is attracting attention from exploration companies. This work**will test the model that the lithium in these clays has accumulated following the leaching of Li-enriched**rhyolitic lavas and ignimbrites formed during the eruption of an ancient supervolcano. The resulting collapse**structure of a supervolcano like the McDermitt Caldera created a basin for sediments and leached Li to**accumulate following transport via meteoric water and hydrothermal fluids. A field and laboratory program is**proposed to document lithium isotope anomalies and relationships with lithium concentration to explain the**spatial variability of lithium concentrations in the deposit. This proposed research will be using isotope and**geochemical techniques that have been developed in the University of Ottawa geoscience laboratories, to build**an ore genesis model that will help focus exploration and mining activities at the site.