PAN AMERICAN ENERGY CORP. Pan American Energy Corp. announced the completion of the Spring 2024 field prospecting and sampling program at the Big Mack Lithium Project, located 80 km north of the town of Kenora, Ontario. The exploration program is part of a collaborative research project with the Institute of Microbial Systems and Society ("IMSS") at the University of Regina ("U of R") entitled "Geomicrobiology for Detecting Rare Metal Deposits".
The Spring 2024 field prospecting and sampling program commenced on May 13, 2024 and completed on June 21st, 2024 both on time and on budget. The program was led by Dr. Jared Suchan, P.Geo. (technical advisor) and Dr. Andrew Cameron (IMSS/U of R), utilizing eight students specializing in geosciences from the U of R for field sample collection.
The students recorded field data across the Project area, documented site observations, tested ground water chemistry, and collected an array of samples when possible, including soil, rocks, and vegetation. A total number of 856 stations were performed, from which 189 water chemistry measurements were taken; 885 soil, 659 rock, and 392 plant samples were collected for geochemical analysis at the Saskatchewan Research Council ("SRC") Geoanalytical Laboratory in Saskatoon; and, 881 soil samples were collected for geomicrobial analysis at the IMSS Laboratory in Regina, Saskatchewan. There were 120 "calibration" stations focused on calibrating geomicrobial signatures over various types of pegmatites (both mineralized and barren) at 10-meter spacing, and 462 "general" stations dedicated to covering the majority (452 acres) of the Project at 65-meter spacing.
A regional "pegmatite corridor", identified by previous operators based upon trends of rock and plant geochemistry, was tested in greater detail with 130 "wide-corridor" stations at 45-meter spacing across 119 acres. Within the corridor area tested, the highest level of detail (32-meter spacing across 67 acres) was evaluated with 144 "narrow-corridor" stations on a narrow band that coincided with several magnetic anomalies that had been detected in a previous high-resolution survey. Pan American intends to complement existing geochemical and geophysical exploration data on the property by using geomicrobiology to help generate, improve, and refine exploratory drill targets at the Big Mack.
The research project is currently under review by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada ("NSERC") for a grant under the Alliance Grants Mitacs Accelerate project which, if received, will be applied to offset the costs of the research, including the costs of the sampling program at Big Mack.
