Fuse Cobalt Inc. (TSXV:FUSE), (OTC:FUSEF), (FRA:43W3), Vancouver, Canada, has announced it has acquired, by staking, 100 placer claims covering 2000 acres (809 hectares) at Teels Marsh, Nevada. The property, called Teels Marsh West is highly prospective for lithium brines and is located approximately 48 miles northwest of Clayton Valley and the Rockwood Lithium Mine, North America’s only producing brine-based lithium mine, supporting lithium production since 1967.
Teels Marsh West is a highly prospective lithium exploration project, 100% owned without any royalties, located on the western part of a large evaporation pond, or playa (also known as a salar). Structural analysis reveals that Teels Marsh is bounded by faults and is tectonically active. Tectonic activities supply additional local permeability that could be provided by the faults that bound the graben and sub-basins.
Robert Setter, Fuse President & CEO comments “Fuse staked the Teels Marsh West Lithium project because of our commitment to energy metal exploration and finding great projects in North America that can contribute to the production of the lithium ion battery. Teels Marsh West is such a project. Teels Marsh is a dry lake very similar to the Clayton Valley property, being that they are both closed desert basins (playas) that were mined for borax starting in the mid 1800’s 78 kilometres (48 miles) northwest of the Clayton Valley which hosts Albemarle‘s Silver Peak Lithium Brine Mine, North America’s only producing Lithium “brine-based deposit”. We look forward to developing an exploration plan and continuing to work on this project in a very promising area for lithium exploration.”
A finder’s fee in the amount of 200,000 shares will be paid in connection with a finder’s fee agreement for locating and acquiring the Teels Marsh West Project. The finder’s fee is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
About Teels Marsh West
Shallow auger holes and drill-holes (<60 m) show that unconsolidated basin fill deposits include clays, clastic rocks silts and sands), evaporate deposits, and volcanic ash. With the exception of clays, these rocks represent potential sources of permeability. Volcanic ash beds could host significant zones of permeability, due to the relative proximity of Teels Marsh to young volcanic centers at Mono Craters (near Mono Lake) and Long Valley, California, both located approximately 70 km to the southwest. These ash layers have proven to be the most productive brine sources in Clayton Valley (an active geothermal area).
The Bishop Tuff, which is believed to represent an important zone of permeability at Clayton Valley, (80 km to the SE of the only North American lithium brine deposit which is being mined by Rockwood Lithium Inc.) is likely present in the subsurface at Teels Marsh.
Direct evidence of an active geothermal system in the Teels Marsh area has recently been gathered by researchers at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, Reno and the Desert Research Institute. This evidence comes from mapping anomalously high temperatures at a depth of only 2 meters below the basin surface: these temperatures are as high at 35C compared to background temperatures of approximately 16-18C. The temperature anomalies occur in two separate zones, both of which are adjacent to a Quaternary fault on the western margin of Teels Marsh basin. The two temperature anomalies have a combined strike length parallel to the fault of almost 4 km. A USGS geochemical survey conducted in 1976 reported lithium values as high as 850 ppm from samples taken from springs marginal to these fault structures.