Grounded Lithium expands the exploration boundaries in Saskatchewan

Just over a month ago Grounded Lithium Corporation (TSX-V: GRD) completed only the second well drilled in Saskatchewan province specifically aimed at finding lithium.

The well was drilled at Grounded Lithium’s Kindersley project as part of its search for lithium brine mineralisation.

Saskatchewan has been drilled long and hard for most everything else — potash, of course, along with oil and gas and even helium so there are many existing well holes.

But, so far, the province is largely unexplored for targeting lithium brines.

The company has just completed a reverse takeover — also known as a backdoor listing — of VAR Resources and joins the Toronto Venture exchange holding 64,418 net hectares of ground, which make up its Kindersley lithium project.

Grounded Lithium itself was founded in 2020 to take part in the energy transition, which was then getting underway.

Now able to access necessary financing

Since it was established, Grounded Lithium set about acquiring ground holdings both through government land sales and by means of contractual arrangements with private landowners.

It has enough money to carry out the early stages of its exploration plans after a C$5.7 million cap raise – although noting that this is a fraction of the market capitalisation of other explorers in western Canada.

After the completion of the reverse takeover, Grounded Lithium president and chief executive officer Gregg Smith said that with the public listing completed, the company was looking to accessing capital “in many more forms than would otherwise be available to a private junior start-up”.

He said this listing is a “significant milestone” for the overall business plan.

“Right from the genesis of this idea to create a best-in-class lithium from brine resource development company, the team and its advisors have done a tremendous job.”

Mr Smith has spent 35 years in the oil and gas sector and held a senior role at Calgary-based Petrobank during a period when its production rose from 2,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to 20,000Boepd. Then he led the team at a new enterprise, PetroBakken, which focused on the Bakken Formation which straddles the US-Canada border.

He also worked on offshore Louisiana and Texas projects and in the Middle East.

Developing Saskatchewan’s untapped lithium potential

Grounded Lithium’s project is located within the Leduc Formation where the company says it is planning to develop Saskatchewan’s untapped lithium brine potential.

Leduc spans several thousands of square kilometres and is more than 200m thick.

The company notes that Saskatchewan and southern Alberta have massive shallow water carbonate structures, which it says are ideal conduits for massive lithium-rich brine resources.

“These reservoirs are well understood, due to decades of historic oil and gas development in the area,” it added.

Growing lithium activity in Saskatchewan

Moreover, there is growing activity in the region.

E3 Lithium (CVE: ETL) has defined a resource of 7 million tonnes at its Clearwater project, in the adjacent Alberta province, while Prairie Lithium — responsible for the other lithium hole so far drilled in Saskatchewan — was able to raise C$7.5 million to finance further exploration.

Grounded Lithium’s business plan allows for concentration and extraction testing, drilling delineation wells and tests to confirm lithium concentrations.

The company says all its projects have key attributes.

These are multiple mapping criteria for identifying prospects, excellent flow rates and deliverability, a thick reservoir with large brine capacity, previous testing indicated concentrations over 72 milligrams per litre, and existing well for additional brine sampling and analysis.