Lithium developer Winsome Resources has received a C$130 0000 grant from the Quebec government to use towards metallurgical testwork samples from its Adina project in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, Canada.
The grant has been offered under the Mineral Exploration Support Programme for Critical and Strategic Minerals (PSEM-MCS), which is overseen by the Quebec Natural Resources and Forests Ministry.
“We acknowledge the desire of the Quebec government to develop the critical and strategic minerals industry within the province, including investigating the potential for downstream and other value-adding initiatives, and we are pleased that our Adina project has been recognised as one of
the premier lithium development opportunities within Québec,” said MD Chris Evans.
In March 2020, Quebec announced a five-year investment of $90-million to develop critical and strategic minerals. In October that year, it launched the Quebec Plan for the Development of Critical and Strategic Minerals 2020‑2025 (QPDCSM), to oversee the interventions to make Québec a
leader in critical mineral production, processing and recycling, in partnership with regional and Indigenous communities. The PSEM-MCS is part of the QPDCSM and was established to provide assistance to critical mineral exploration projects.
The assistance is allocated to metallurgical and geoenvironmental work in order to support the development of new deposits with the goal of detailing the mineralisation characteristics in these projects and allowing the assessment of not only the quantity, but also the quality of the mineralisation present.
An amount of C$4.25-million is budgeted in the QPDCSM financial framework for the implementation of the programme.