The important discovery of lithium by Aleximontois

geology. Geologist Remy Charbonneau has discovered large lumps of lithium near James Bay, a mineral that is in great demand today.

“During June 2023, he visited this area that he had already explored in the 1990s. “The big lithium discovery we worked on this summer actually dates back to 1996. At that time I was working in the eastern part of James Bay. I was sampling gold grains in glacial deposits, and then along the way I came across clumps 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 clients at the time and they found it a nice curiosity, but nothing more. At the time it was worthless. I also talked about it with other geologists. Then last year “Someone started looking for lithium. He remembered that and called me.”

This is how Rémy Charbonneau excavated these notes dating back to 1996 in order to find the exact location of a potential lithium deposit.

“I remembered that there was a very sharp lake and I saw the rock near there. You can’t really go wrong in this very special lake. What also helped us were the satellite images, as a mass of this size forms a white square. In fact, the mass was easily spotted and was able to The guy verified that it was indeed lithium.

Remy Charbonneau explains that he does not yet know the progress of its extraction, given that there is a company currently specialized in the drilling stage, that is, measuring the exact size of spodumene.

Pay attention to lithium

“These days, there are a lot of lithium discoveries because there is a lot of interest, especially with the transition to electric cars. It will take a lot of lithium. Then it’s not just cars. These are also battery-powered gadgets, mobile phones, everything works Mainly in the battery.We are already seeing a growing interest in this metal that ensures the proper functioning of various devices used daily.

The geologist also points out that the scientific community is currently working on discovering lithium deposits. “Since last year, I would say, people have been combing through old reports and there are probably 10,000 like this! So they dug in there and looked up the word spodumene.

Remy Charbonneau mentions that the territory of Quebec seems to be particularly conducive to the discovery of lithium blocks. He is also continuing his research to find other in-demand sources of this metal.

There are many lithium processing plants in China. However, there are a few plant installation projects emerging in the province. “There’s a project in McMasterville near Beloeil for a battery plant because there are James Bay lines that go through there.”

Aleximontois emphasizes the large amount of electricity this type of installation requires. That’s why, he said, a plant of this type could be built near James Bay, especially because of the large presence of hydroelectric dams.

Geologist’s work

“In geology, there are several aspects. There is terrain where you often have to travel far. Then, there is the sample processing aspect with the analyzer and instruments and all kinds of things. That’s what I do here at my house in San Alexis. Then the other part is reporting. We do a lot “From computer work, we process data.”

He points out that in addition to lithium, there is demand for many other minerals. “There is still a huge demand for gold. In 80% of cases, it is gold that we look for. There are other metals that we look for such as nickel with which we make stainless steel. It has become fashionable now. The material we also looked for is titanium. The value of titanium is very high because it is a metal that is used in the biomedical field because the body will not reject it. For example, when they make a metal joint, titanium is used.

Remy Charbonneau specializes in the study of glaciers after obtaining a doctorate in the subject. Today, he still works with different metals depending on his clients’ needs. He actually has his own company, Big Nugget Labs Inc., through which he does mining exploration throughout the county.