Put together by a well-credentialled team that has worked with some of the biggest lithium names in the mining sector, Pioneer's 90% interest in Root Lake is the centrepiece of a plan to raise A$5 million at 20c and start adding more spodumene to Canada's rapidly increasing endowment.

 

Root Lake is a contiguous holding adjacent to GT1's 8.1Mt at 1.32% Root Bay and 4.5Mt at 1.01% McCombe deposits, and emerging Morrison discovery.

 

Staked by vendor Rockex Mining between 2018 and 2022, the claims are largely unexplored, with little work completed since less than 10 holes were completed in the 1950s, unsuccessfully looking for base metals.

 

Pegmatites were logged, but lithium assays were reported for only two of the holes: 2m at 2.83% and 2m at 2.42% in one and 5.3m at 1.86% in the other.

 

Pioneer's other projects, both owned 100%, are Lauri Lake, to the south in the Thunder Bay, and LaGrande in Quebec's prolific James Bay region.

 

Lauri Lake has evidence of fertile granite fractionation and pegmatites, with mapping completed by the Ontario Geological Survey in the 1960s, but little follow-up work has been completed.

 

GT1's 9.9Mt grading 1.03% Seymour Lake deposit is in the same neighbourhood.

 

LaGrande is some 350km northeast of Val-d'Or and beyond mapping and some geomagnetic surveys in 1969, there has been no real exploration, although there are uranium showings towards the south of the project. 

 

It is in the same region as Patriot Battery Metals' Corvette and Allkem's James Bay resources, two of the largest in the world with more than 220Mt of high-grade mineralisation combined, and holdings by fellow Australians such as Winsome Resources and Loyal Lithium.

 

Pioneer's executive chair is veteran businessman Robert Martin, who is also chair at Critical Resources, Battery Age Minerals and Equinox Resources. 

 

He is joined on the Pioneer board by geologist Nigel Broomham, project developer Gerard O'Donovan and finance executive Agha Shahzad Pervez.

 

Broomham and O'Donovan are both ex-Pilbara Minerals and all three serve with Battery Age.

 

On listing, ex-Fortescue Future Industries and Galaxy Resources veteran Clinton Booth will join as CEO. 

 

Martin said given the evidence of high-grade spodumene at Root Lake Pioneer was keen to get drilling soon after listing, and working up a maiden resource. 

 

Pioneer hopes to list in September.