Li-FT Power Ltd. reported that the Company has commenced a winter diamond drill program at the Yellowknife Lithium Project. This 2024 winter drilling program aims to drill just over 100 holes for 18,600 m on six of LIFT?s pegmatite prospects to build on the 34,200 m of drilling across 198 holes that was completed in 2023. LIFT plans to drill 2,945 m over 16 diamond drill holes to vertical depths of up to 350 m at the BIG-East pegmatite.

At surface, the pegmatite occurs as a 1.8-kilometer-long northeast-trending dyke swarm up to 100 m-wide. At approximately 75 m below surface, the swarm merges into a single 30 m-wide feeder dyke. Drilling across this structure in 2023 returned highlight intercepts of 28 m of 1.70% Li2O, 26 m of 1.56% Li2O, and 22 m of 1.35% Li2O.

The 2024 Drilling will focus on extending these grades and widths 450 m to the northeast, stepping out from 2023 results derived from one or two closely spaced dykes that returned 18 m of 1.75% Li2O, 23 m of 1.33% Li2O, and 23 m of 1.17% Li2O. The program will also test below the deepest parts of the spodumene system at the southwestern end of the dyke and up to 350 m below the surface, where drill holes will step out below to test beneath the previously drilled 18 m of 1.79% Li2O (hole YLP-0092) and 28 m of 1.19% Li2O (hole YLP-0085). LIFT plans to drill at the Echo pegmatite 8,390 m over 54 diamond drill holes, up to vertical depths of 250 m below the surface.

This pegmatite comprises a steeply dipping, northwest-trending, feeder dyke that splits into a fanning splay of moderate to gently dipping dykes at its northwest end. The dyke complex has a total strike length of over 1.0 kilometer with individual dykes up to 25 m wide. Highlights from 2023 drilling, all of which were collared in the northwest splay, returned 12 m of 1.52% Li2O, 13 m of 1.24% Li2O, and 10 m of 1.41% Li2O.

The 2024 drill plan will test the most northwesterly part of the splay structure along 350 m of strike as well as the feeder dyke along 550 m of strike to the southeast. Proposed holes on the splay structure will step out from 2023 holes that returned 13 m of 1.48% Li2O and 11 m of 1.42% Li2O, and test mineralization to a vertical depth of 250 m. The feeder dyke has not yet been drilled by LIFT, while historical surface work suggests that it is approximately 10 m wide and contains 25-30% spodumene. LIFT plans to drill 3,395 m over 18 diamond drill holes to vertical depths of up to 325 m at the Fi-Main and Fi-Southwest (SW) pegmatite dykes.

The Fi-Main dyke is located 250 m to the northeast of Fi-SW and crops out over a distance of 1.5 kilometers. The structure dips steeply to the west and consists of two or more dykes that appear to coalesce towards the north. Highlights from 2023 drilling include 27 m of 1.26% Li2O, 22 m of 1.53% Li2O, 30 m of 1.13% Li2O, and 23 m of 1.33% Li2O.

Drilling is planned to extend mineralization along 1.0 kilometer of strike length to approximately 150 m vertically below surface. A second drill at the north end of the dyke will focus on extending the mineralization another 325 m to the northeast to build on 2023 intersections of 24 m of 1.12% Li2O and 27 m of 1.26% Li2O. The Fi-SW dyke outcrops over 1.1 kilometers on surface with an average outcropping width of approximately 20 m. The dyke is steeply dipping to the east and trends towards the north-northeast.

Drill highlights from 2023 include 79 m of 1.13% Li2O in a downdip hole as well as holes drilled broadly normal to strike that returned 39 m of 1.43% Li2O, 34 m of 1.35% Li2O, and 33 m of 1.39% Li2O. The 2024 proposed drilling will focus on a 250 m section at the northeast end of the pegmatite where infill holes are planned to step out from near-surface mineralized intersections of 15 m at 1.03% Li2O and 11 m of 1.36% Li2O. The remaining holes will aim to expand the deepest parts of the spodumene system to a depth of 325 m from surface, stepping out from 10 m of 0.98% Li2O and 4 m of 1.63% Li2O.

LIFT plans to drill 3,860 m, over 21 diamond drill holes, and up to vertical depths of 250 m below the surface on the Ki and Shorty pegmatite dykes. The Ki pegmatite is a north-northwest trending corridor of dykes that extends for over 1.0 kilometer on surface and dips steeply to the southwest. The corridor consists of between one to five dykes with a similar total pegmatite thickness of up to 25 m. Highlight holes from 2023 drilling include 21 m of 1.12% Li2O, 14 m of 1.50% Li2O, 12 m of 1.58% Li2O and 13 m of 1.27% Li2O.

The 2024 drill plan will test an additional 500 m of strike-length on the corridor stepping out from some of the best 2023 drilling results, including holes YLP-0098 and -0080. The Shorty pegmatite, located about 5 kilometers south of Ki, consists of three, 20 m-wide en-echelon dykes that dip steeply to the west-northwest. They can be traced on surface for over 700 m and host spodumene mineralization to at least 250 m below the surface.

Highlights from 2023 drilling include 20 m of 1.52% Li2O, 16 m of 1.76% Li2O, and 25 m of 1.13% Li2O. Two holes are planned at the northeast end of the pegmatite to complete the last drill fence in this direction. These holes will test for mineralization down to 150 m below surface that offsets from a near-surface intercept of 10 m at 1.75% Li2O.

At the south end of the dyke, additional holes are planned to extend near-surface intersections, The remaining hole in the far south will infill more shallow mineralization offsetting from 10 m of 1.16% Li2O. All drill core samples were collected under the supervision of LIFT employees and contractors. Drill core was transported from the drill platform to the core processing facility where it was logged, photographed, and split by diamond saw prior to being sampled.

Samples were then bagged, and blanks and certified reference materials were inserted at regular intervals. Field duplicates consisting of quarter-cut core samples were also included in the sample runs. Groups of samples were placed in large bags, sealed with numbered tags in order to maintain a chain-of-custody, and transported from LIFT?s core logging facility to ALS Labs laboratory in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Sample preparation and analytical work for this drill program were carried out by ALS. Samples were prepared for analysis according to ALS method CRU31: individual samples were crushed to 70% passing through 2 mm (10 mesh) screen; a 1,000-gram sub-sample was riffle split (SPL-21) and then pulverized (PUL-32) such that 85% passed through 75 micron (200 mesh) screen. A 0.2-gram sub-sample of the pulverized material was then dissolved in a sodium peroxide solution and analysed for lithium according to ALS method ME-ICP82b.

Another 0.2-gram sub-sample of the pulverized material was analysed for 53 elements according to ALS method ME-MS89L. All results passed the QA/QC screening at the lab, all inserted standards and blanks returned results that were within acceptable limits.