Cypress Development Corporation holds a 100% interest in the 1,520 acre Glory Project totaling 76 placer/lode claims located in the heart of the Clayton Valley lithium production and exploration area of Esmeralda County, Nevada. Cypress' Glory Claims are located to the immediate south of Cypress' Dean Claims and less than a 1,000 meters (0.5 mile) southeast of producing lithium brine wells belonging to the Albemarle Silver Peak Mine. Cypress' Clayton Valley Projects are located in an active area of lithium mining and lithium exploration. Highways and electric power are in place and exploration resources needed are readily accessible. Located southwest flank of Angel Island at Cypress' Glory Clayton Valley Lithium Project:
Cypress' Glory Project is located on the south flank of an exposure known as Angel Island, one of several isolated exposures of highly deformed and metamorphosed rocks of Cambrian age. The lithium brines being produced for almost 50 years at the Silver Peak Mine have come from the flanks of Angel and Goat Islands. The Glory Claims share their western boundary with claims controlled by Pure Energy Minerals who have identified an inferred lithium brine resource at their northern resource area located to the immediate west of Cypress' property boundary.
Cypress has reviewed the seismic data in Pure Energy Minerals NI 43-101 Technical Report titled "Inferred Resource Estimate for Lithium, Clayton Valley South Project", dated July 17, 2015. The data appears to indicate favorable lithium brine exploration targets along the western and west central portions of Cypress' Glory Project. Other first order targets exist on Cypress' Glory Property including the discovery of extensive surface outcropping of altered green lithium-rich claystone found during 2016 exploration and the presence of stockwork veining at paleo hot spring vents. These non-hectorite claystone exposures are believed to represent uplifted portions of the lake bed stratigraphy within which the lithium brines of the Clayton Valley basin are found and produced from.
Lithium-rich claystone was discovered at Cypress' Glory Clayton Valley Project: The lithium-rich outcropping claystone could possibly overlie lithium-rich brines at a shallow level at Cypress' Glory Project. The core lands cover the immediate eastern extension of Pure Energy's identified lithium brine northern resource area. The Company believes that lithium-rich brines could be localized at the water table below the highly mineralized claystone discovered at Cypress' Glory Project and potentially along structures cutting these units.
The Albemarle Silver Peak Mine is the only operating brine based lithium mine in North America. The Silver Peak Mine began operations in 1967 to mine lithium carbonate by low cost evaporation ponds and has produced lithium carbonate since then. The concentration in the production brines were reported in 2001 to average 160 ppm (160 mg/litre) lithium (Garrett Report, 2004). Concentrations in the brines in Clayton Valley have been relatively consistent in the 150-200 ppm (150-200 mg/litre) lithium in recent history. The brines from the north part of the Clayton Valley are sodium/chloride (Na/Cl) in composition and have concentrations in the range of 60-400 ppm (60-400 mg/litre) lithium.
*NOTE: 100 ppm lithium metal (Li) is equivalent to 532 ppm lithium carbonate (Li2CO3).
Clayton Valley is located within the Basin and Range Province in southern Nevada and is an internally drained, fault bounded, and closed basin. Basin filling strata compose the aquifer system which hosts and produces the lithium-rich brine. (Zampirro Report 2004). The Silver Peak area is one of the oldest mining areas in Nevada having produced substantial amounts of silver, gold, lithium and other minerals.
Exploration Results at Cypress' Glory Clayton Valley Lithium Project: Cypress has interpreted available historic geophysical data of the Clayton Valley, including reconnaissance gravity survey and seismic reflection survey data. Reconnaissance gravity surveys gave a better understanding of the size and extent of the basin and the depth to bedrock on Cypress' Angel and Glory claims. A seismic reflection survey helped define location and extent of bounding and in-basin faults, identify depth to bedrock, and identify and trace key stratigraphic horizons laterally and vertically throughout the basin.
Phase 1 surface sampling of green to bone white claystone was completed at Cypress' Glory Project at the end of January 2016 in an area within the northwest portion of the property on the west flank of Angel Island. Angel Island is one of several isolated exposures of highly deformed and metamorphosed rocks of Cambrian age that are surrounded by basin fill evaporite rocks herein referred to as "claystone". This mineralized non-hectorite claystone is not well understood in terms of age but are part of the recent basin fill evaporite rocks of the Clayton Valley based on work completed by the USGS and other research geologists. The lithium-rich claystone exposures are believed to represent uplifted portions of the lake bed stratigraphy within which the lithium brines of the Clayton Valley basin are found and produced from.
Lithium-rich claystone discovered at surface on Cypress' Glory Clayton Valley Project: Cypress' January 2016 Phase 1 sampling program returned the highest assay result for lithium in claystone to be publicly reported in Nevada's Clayton Valley. Several of the assays carried greater than 2,000 ppm lithium (>1.06% Li2CO3 equivalent) with one assay sample returning a grade of 3,070 ppm lithium (1.63% Li2CO3 equivalent) content. The assay results encountered suggested a strong possibility of an essentially continuously mineralized volume of lithium-rich claystone at surface over extensive portions of Cypress' Glory Clayton Valley property.
Sampling lithium-rich claystone discovered at Cypress' Glory Clayton Valley Project: A series of samples were systematically collected from an approximate 100 meters wide traverse through the claystone starting at first exposure on the basin side gravel-mudstone contact (west) and ending at a brecciated vertical fault contact of the claystone with the Cambrian rocks of Angel Island (east). The samples were collected at an approximate spacing of 8 meters. 2016 Phase 1 assays from the systematic traverse samples averaged >1,500 ppm lithium (Li) and were accompanied by a typical suite of other evaporite mineralization. Cypress had discovered high lithium grades at surface that well exceeded other reported Clayton Valley sediments and brines.
The Phase 1 results suggested the strong potential of an essentially continuous volume of lithium-rich claystone at surface at Cypress' Glory Project in a position immediately east of both brine production wells at the Albemarle Silver Peak Mine and the northern resource area of Pure Energy's Clayton Valley South project. Cypress immediately moved forward with a more extensive 2016 Phase 2 exploration program at its Glory Project to better define this lithium-rich surface mineralization discovered during the Phase 1 sampling program. The Company carried out 2 kilometers of detailed surface sampling and geological mapping in the first 2 quarters of 2016 over the western portion of Cypress' Glory Clayton Valley property.
Cypress' May 2016 Phase 2 results from over 200 samples collected showed the discovery of a wide 2 kilometer north-south strike zone of outcropping highly mineralized claystone that assayed 1,100 ppm lithium (0.59% Li2CO3 equivalent) on average and includes a 1.0 kilometer discovery zone that assayed 1,350 ppm lithium (0.72% Li2CO3 equivalent) on average. The outcropping lithium-rich claystone discovered at Cypress' Glory Clayton Valley property are believed to represent uplifted portions of the lake bed stratigraphy within which the lithium brines of the basin are found and produced from.
In October 2016, Cypress and Pure Energy geologists collected approximately 240 rock samples on a nominal 100 meter (330 feet) grid covering much of the prospective sedimentary rocks on the Property. In addition to confirming strong lithium values from previous Cypress sampling, the sampling program returned some of the highest lithium rock samples yet reported in Nevada. So far, sampling has extended the lithium rich zone into a corridor covering more than 3 square kilometers. Selected highlights of the sampling program are included below:
- Maximum lithium value in rock: 3,830 ppm (2.04% Li2CO3 equivalent);
- Average lithium content: 689 ppm;
- Extended corridor of high lithium to 3km long by more than 1 km wide;
- 9 Samples containing more than 2,000 ppm Li (>1.06% Li2CO3 equivalent);
- 71 Samples containing more than 1,000 ppm Li (>0.53% Li2CO3); and
- Anomalous boron (B) and potassium (K) that correlate with high lithium (Li) values.
Patrick Highsmith, Pure Energy Minerals CEO commented, "Our systematic sampling program with Cypress Development on the Glory Claims has exceeded our expectations by discovering some of the highest grade surface lithium in claystone that has been reported in Nevada. Traversing across the area, we can see that these lithium-rich rocks occur over a huge area. Since the dip is relatively flat, our geologists have also demonstrated that the lithium bearing units continue beneath younger alluvial material. Based on our realization that there is potential for significant tonnage of high-lithium rocks on the Property, we are excited to begin the next phase of work on extracting the lithium from these rocks."
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