Stria Lithium Inc. announced the results of tantalum oxide grain counts survey over part of its recently acquired Pontax-II project. Heavy mineral concentrates from 38 glacial till samples collected in 2019 for the purpose of gold grain counting were reprocessed to evaluate the abundance of tantalum oxide grains with the use of an automated scanning microscope based on a proprietary technology by IOS Services Geoscientifiques Inc. Tantalum oxides (tantalite, columbotantalite, wodginite and micronite) are a class of mineral that almost exclusively form in lithium bearing pegmatite (or LCT pegmatite), such as those currently being evaluated at the nearby Pontax-Central occurrence (Stria Lithium under option by Cygnus (Avenir) Metals), as well as the James Bay Lithium project (formerly Cyr Lithium by Allken Mining), the Rose project (Critical Element Lithium Corporation) or the Wabouchi mine (Nemaska Lithium). Of these samples, a total of 5950 tantalum oxide grains were observed, for an average of 156 grains per samples.

As a comparative basis, a regional survey in the same area conducted by the Ministere de l'Energie et des Ressources Naturelles du Quebec, processed using the same technology, yielded an average count of 36 grains per samples, meaning the average sample from Pontax-II stands at the 97.6 centile of the regional population. Samples from Pontax includes tantalum oxide counts up to 797 grains, the highest count ever recorded by the laboratory. The high counts samples are clustered into two distinct kilometer-scale groups, suggestive of two distinct sources.

As these counts are not down-ice from the Pontax-Lithium occurrence, originating from this occurrence is ruled-out. As per comparison, somewhat smaller isolated counts from the MERNQ survey were at the origin of Li-FT Power' Pontax and Rupert project, where the relation between tantalum dispersion and lithium sources was confirmed.