08:48 AM EDT, 06/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Pan American Energy ( PAANF ) said on Friday that it completed the Spring 2024 field prospecting and sampling program at the Big Mack Lithium Project located 80 kilometers north of Kenora, Ontario.

The exploration program is part of a collaborative research project between Pan American Energy ( PAANF ) and the Institute of Microbial Systems and Society at the University of Regina entitled "Geomicrobiology for Detecting Rare Metal Deposits."

The company said 856 stations were performed, from which 189 water chemistry measurements were collected; 885 soil, 659 rock, and 392 plant samples were collected for geochemical analysis at the Saskatchewan Research Council Geoanalytical Laboratory in Saskatoon; and, 881 soil samples were collected for geomicrobial analysis at the IMSS Laboratory in Regina, Saskatchewan.

There were 120 "calibration" stations focused on calibrating geomicrobial signatures over various types of pegmatites at 10-meter spacing, and 462 "general" stations dedicated to covering most of the project at 65-meter spacing.

A regional "pegmatite corridor", identified by previous operators based upon trends of rock and plant geochemistry, was tested in greater detail with 130 "wide-corridor" stations at 45-meter spacing across 119 acres.

Pan American plans to complement existing geochemical and geophysical exploration data on the property by using geomicrobiology to help generate, improve, and refine exploratory drill targets at the Big Mack.