Azincourt Energy Corp. announced that it has completed its preliminary phase of mineral exploration at its Big Hill Lithium Project in southern Newfoundland, Canada. The initial program was conducted under the guidance and participation of its project partner, Atlantis Battery Metals Corp.

The helicopter-assisted program was conducted over 21 days during a 29-day period by a team of five geologists and one prospector. Approximately 70 fresh, unaltered, bedrock samples were collected for lithium and associated element geochemistry in addition to basic petrography and petrology. The Burgeo Intrusive Suite in this area is cut by numerous crosscutting granite dikes and rare pegmatites.

Granite and aplite dykes typically trend about east-west and are generally steeply oriented. A significant pegmatite field was discovered in the southern edge of claim 035342M which spans for ~400m trending NNE. Coincidently, these pegmatites were identified around a government mapped mafic unit with an estimated age of Late Silurian.

These mafic units could potentially create sufficient space for pegmatite intrusions to intrude the early Silurian to Early Devonian Burgeo granites. There appears to be multiple distinct pegmatitic generations present on the property. One moderately dipping pegmatite type is characterized by green quartz resembling beryl.

These dikes are generally thin (i.e., equal to or less than 30 cm). The other pegmatite dike generations range between 30-100 cm wide. The Big Hill Lithium Project is a Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) exploration property located in southwestern Newfoundland, Canada, along the south side of the Hermitage Flexure, approximately 5 km south of the Benton/Sokoman JV partnership discovery of the Kraken Lithium Pegmatite Field (1.04% Li2O over 15.23 metres, 8.4 metres of 0.95% Li2O, and 5.5 metres of 1.16% Li2O).

The Benton/Sokoman JV partnership has also discovered the cesium-tantalum-rubidium-lithium Hydra Dyke which is located 12 km northeast of the Kraken Lithium Pegmatite Field. Channel samples returned results as high as 8.76% Cs2O, 0.41% Li2O, 0.025% Ta2O5, and 0.33% Rb2O over 1.20 metres. The Big Hill Lithium property consists of three contiguous exploration licences consisting of 100 claims each for a total of 300 claims covering 7,500 hectares.

The property lies adjacent to the Kraken Lithium and the Hydra cesium discoveries. The three licenses were map staked for potential spodumene-bearing pegmatites based on a compilation of geological map information in the area and on their proximity to the high-grade, spodumene-bearing, Kraken lithium discovery by the Sokoman Minerals ? Benton Resources Alliance in 2021, and the subsequent discovery of high-grade cesium in pegmatite from the Hydra Zone.

The Kraken lithium discovery is located approximately 6.5 kilometers north of license 035340M. The high-grade cesium discovery is located approximately 15 kilometers to the west of license 035342M. Each of the three licenses are underlain by the Burgeo granite and occur at the northwestern margin of the intrusive suite located close to the Kraken lithium discovery.

The marginal area of these mixed intrusive phases is expected to have developed lithium and critical metal-bearing pegmatites. The property encompasses a large tract of ground lying immediately south of the Hermitage Flexure in predominantly granite intrusive suites. Mineralization in the area is characterized by W, Mo, Pb, F, Zn, Cu, Au, Ag, Sn, Ba, Bi, and U mineralization.

The Big Hill claims are found dominantly within the Burgeo Intrusive Suite. The Burgeo intrusive suite is a polyphase intrusive body of batholithic proportions composed of a continuum of compositions, from gabbro through tonalite and granodiorite to granite. The most observed lithology in the field were granites and minor felsic and mafic dikes.

Targets ranged up to approximately 100 metres in length and several of them occur only as point sources Additional exploration is under consideration, potentially split into two phases: Phase I. Helicopter-assisted prospecting, geological mapping, and geochemical sampling. Preliminary geochemistry survey for LCT pegmatite lithium path-finder elements using a portable XRF unit to help minimize the potentially large number of samples. MMI geochemistry.

Soil geochemistry. A glacial till survey to concentrate spodumene from tills. Phase II (based on results from Phase I) High-resolution geophysical survey that may in part include, EM/Mag, radiometric, and lidar, surveys.

A high-resolution drone survey should be carried out over targeted pegmatite areas to obtain low-altitude, high-resolution photography to assist more rapid ground mapping. Selected trenching should be considered in areas where overburden is thin, and pegmatites are shown to be covered. An initial 1,500 metres diamond drilling program.