Patriot Battery Metals falls on Toronto debut

Shares in Canada’s Patriot Battery Metals (ASX: PMT; TSX: PMET) were falling 5% on its debut in the major leagues of the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, a day after the hard-rock lithium exploration company received the official approval.

The Vancouver-based firm had applied to graduate from the TSX Venture Exchange with a view to accessing further institutional capital and investors, enhancing the trading liquidity as well as its visibility and reputation, it said.

Patriot is focused on advancing its 100% owned Corvette property located in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Quebec.

The junior kicked off in December the process to obtain all necessary approvals leading to the development of the Corvette property, which hosts numerous spodumene-bearing pegmatites.

Patriot Battery Metals is particularly interested in the CV5 cluster, which is estimated to hold a maiden mineral resource of 109.2 million tonnes at 1.42% lithium oxide inferred.

According to the company, CV5 ranks as the largest lithium pegmatite resource in the Americas based on contained lithium carbonate equivalent. It is also one of the 10 largest in the world.

The listing comes as Patriot reported drilling results from the CV13 spodumene pegmatite, which results include 26.1 meters at 1.21% lithium oxide and 18.3 meters at 1.33% lithium oxide.

A previously identified higher-grade zone has also been extended to at least 200 meters strike length.

Additional step-out drilling is planned at the CV13 spodumene pegmatite as part of the 2024 winter program currently underway, the company said.

Quebec has become a hard rock lithium hotspot as companies vie to supply the surging electric vehicle market. The federal government approved this year the James Bay open-pit project by Galaxy Resources, a part of Allkem (TSX: AKE; ASX: AKE).

Azimut Exploration (TSX-V: AZM) is advancing its own James Bay project and Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA) restarted its North American Lithium (NAL) project in March 2023, with of production of battery-grade lithium carbonate expected as early as 2026. 

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MINING.COM