GEOLOGY. Geologist Rémi Charbonneau discovered large blocks of lithium, a highly sought-after mineral today, near James Bay.
In June 2023 he visited this area, which he had already explored in the 1990s. “The big discovery of lithium that we worked on this summer actually dates back to 1996. At that time I was working in the eastern part of James Bay. I sampled gold grains in the glacial sediments and along the way came across blocks of spodumene, which is ultimately the mineral lithium. “It was huge,” says the geologist.
“In 1996 there was no interest in lithium. I mentioned it to my customers at the time and they thought it was a nice oddity, but nothing more. It was worthless back then. I had also talked to other geologists about it. Then last year one of them started looking for lithium. He remembered it and contacted me.”
So Rémi Charbonneau delved into these notes from 1996 to determine the exact location of the potential lithium deposit.
“I remembered there was a very sharp lake and I saw the boulder nearby. You really can’t go wrong with this very distinctive lake. What also helped us were satellite images, because such a large block results in a white square,” he says. In fact, the block was easy to spot and the man was able to confirm that it was indeed lithium.
Rémi Charbonneau explains that he does not yet know the progress of the extraction since a specialized company is currently in the drilling phase, that is, measuring the exact volume of the spodumene.
Interested in lithium
“Many lithium discoveries are being made today as interest is high, particularly with the transition to electric cars. This requires a lot of lithium. Then it’s not just the cars. These are also battery-operated tools, cell phones, basically anything that is battery-operated.” We are actually seeing a growing interest in this mineral, which ensures the proper functioning of various devices used on a daily basis.
The geologist also points out that the scientific community is currently working on finding lithium deposits. “I would say since last year people have been going through old reports and there are maybe 10,000 reports like this!” So they dig in there and look for the word spodumene.”
Rémi Charbonneau mentions that the Quebec area appears to be particularly conducive to the discovery of lithium blocks. He himself continues to research to find other sources of this sought-after mineral.
There are several lithium processing plants located in China. However, some factory installation projects are emerging in the province. “There is a project for a battery factory in McMasterville near Beloeil because James Bay lines run there.”
Aleximontois highlights the large power requirements of this type of installation. For this reason, in his opinion, a factory of this scale could be built near James Bay, especially due to the large presence of hydroelectric power plants.
The work of a geologist
“There are several aspects to geology. There are areas where you often have to cover long distances. This is followed by sample processing with analysis equipment, tools and everything else. I do that here in my house in Saint-Alexis. The other part is the reports. We do a lot of computer work, we process data.”
He points out that in addition to lithium, several other minerals are in demand. “Gold is still highly sought after. 80% of the time it is gold we are looking for. There are also other metals we look for, such as nickel, which we use to make stainless steel. It has now become fashionable. A material we were also looking for is titanium. The value of titanium is very high because it is a metal for the biomedical field as the body does not reject it. For example, if they make a metal compound, titanium is used.”
Rémi Charbonneau specializes in the study of glaciers and holds a doctorate on the subject. Today he still works with different minerals depending on the needs of his customers. He actually has his own company, Big Nugget Labs Inc., through which he conducts mining exploration throughout the province.
Originally posted 2023-11-24 03:38:28.