Patriot Battery Metals achieves regulatory milestone for Corvette lithium project permitting
A regulatory milestone has been achieved by Patriot Battery Metals (TSX: PMET) (ASX: PMT) that will see the company advance further in the permitting process for its wholly owned Corvette project in Quebec.
The lithium developer announced Tuesday it has received the guidelines required by the provincial government for the Corvette project’s environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA), a required step in its permitting.
The guidelines — which had inputs from an evaluation committee (known as COMEV) consisting of members from the Cree Nation, Quebec and Canadian governments — will serve as the roadmap to completing the ESIA, said Patriot’s CEO Ken Brinsden.
Patriot, led by a management team with experience in Australia, is currently evaluating Corvette as a potential hard-rock spodumene mining operation. The project is located in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, close to regional road and powerline infrastructure.
Based on company calculations, Corvette is home to the largest lithium pegmatite resource in the Americas. An initial estimate on the CV5 pegmatite alone showed an inferred resource of 109.2 million at 1.42% Li2O; estimates on a cluster of other pegmatites are still to come.
According to Alix Drapack, VP of ESG at Patriot, the guidelines from COMEV were “clear and consistent” with other proposed mining projects of this scale and nature in the Eeyou Istchee area, and were received as expected.
The company, which began collecting environmental baseline data at the project in 2022, said it will continue to do so in accordance with the new guidelines, adding that regular updates on the progress of the work programs associated with the ESIA will be provided.
Submission of the ESIA report is expected in late 2025, Patriot noted in its news release.
The company also said it is currently well-funded for a regional exploration campaign, with another resource estimate targeted this year. Albemarle, the world’s leading lithium miner, last year made a C$109 million investment in the company.
Shares of Patriot Battery Metals fell by 3.1% to C$7.12 apiece by 12:40 p.m. ET, for a market capitalization of C$1.3 billion ($960m).