LITHIUM, CESIUM, AND RUBIDIUM 



373 



(probable) category, were reported at the same time 

 as 15,769,075 tons, presumably of the same grade 

 (Kesler, 1960, p. 525), which adds 112,000 tons of 

 lithium to the total. Elsewhere in the Kings Moun- 

 tain district, the Lithium Corp. of America holds 

 reserves that were reported as of May 20, 1963 

 (Clarke, F. F., written commun., 1963), to amount 

 to 37 million tons at 1.32 percent Li^O, or 227,000 

 tons of lithium. 



Kesler (1960, p. 525) reported that the total re- 

 serves of the Kings Mountain district probably 

 exceed all published estimates. The largest of the 

 estimates is equivalent to 600,000 tons of lithium 

 (Norton and Schlegel, 1955, table 5). These reserves 

 were almost entirely in the inferred (possible) cate- 

 gory, yet they are not much greater than the proved 

 and probable reserves of 486,000 tons that have 

 since been demonstrated. Certainly enough lithium 

 to make up the difference is in the many small 

 Spodumene pegmatites of the region and in unex- 

 plored parts of the known large deposits. It is not 

 unreasonable to suppose also that the district has 

 additional large bodies of spodumene pegmatite, 

 perhaps at great depth, perhaps even near the sur- 

 face. The total of possible reserves, conditional re- 

 sources, and hypothetical resources may well be 

 placed at twice the known reserves, or about 1 mil- 

 lion tons of lithium. 



Of the many localities elsewhere in the United 

 States that contain lithium pegmatites, only the 

 Black Hills, S. Dak., is known to have a significant 

 quantity of lithium minerals, and the estimate there 

 is only about 10,000 tons of lithium (Norton, 1964, 

 p. 130). Because lithium mining has been dormant 

 in the Black Hills for many years owing to the area's 

 inability to compete with mines elsewhere, its 

 lithium should be classified as a conditional resource. 

 An estimate of hypothetical resources for the Black 

 Hills or other localities in the United States would 

 be trivial in comparison with the estimate for Kings 

 Mountain. 



CANADA 



The best known deposits in Canada are at the 

 Quebec Lithium mine, Barraute, Quebec, and the 

 Tanco deposit, Bemic Lake, Manitoba. The Quebec 

 Lithium res srves are 15 million tons containing 1.2 

 percent LiaO, or 84,000 tons of lithium, according 

 to the account by Mulligan (1965, p. 46), who appar- 

 ently preferred these figures to somewhat larger 

 figures published elsewhere. At the Tanco deposit, 

 Howe and Rowntree (1966, p. 210) placed lepidolite 

 reserves at 107,700 tons with 2.24 percent LiaO and 

 spodumene reserves at 4,727,263 tons with 2.01 per- 



cent LiaO, excluding ore that would have to be left 

 as a pillar unless the lake were drained. These fig- 

 ures indicate a total of 45,000 tons of lithium in 

 the Tanco mine. 



Reserve estimates have been published for many 

 other deposits in Canada. None of them have been 

 mined, nor do any seem as attractive as the Quebec 

 Lithium or the Tanco deposits, one of which was 

 closed in the face of competition from Silver Peak 

 and the other after many years of eifort has yet to 

 produce lithium. In these circumstances, the other 

 Canadian deposits seem most suitably classified as 

 conditional resources. Pye (1965, p. 26) has tabu- 

 lated data from the Georgia Lake area, Ontario, 

 that indicate a total of 62,000 tons of lithium. For 

 other areas in Canada, Mulligan (1965, table 6) com- 

 piled estimates that amount to 84,000 tons of lith- 

 ium. Quite surely there is additional lithium at 

 Barraute, Quebec, where only the ore within 600 

 feet of the main shaft to a depth of 850 feet is in- 

 cluded in the Quebec Lithium reserves nor should 

 the ore excluded as a pillar at the Tanco deposit, 

 which has 22,000 tons of lithium, be left wholly out 

 of account. For the Yellowknife region. Mulligan 

 (1965, p. 89) preferred to quote none of the existing 

 reserve estimates but instead remarked that there 

 is a "reserve of many millions of tons of material 

 comparable to that developed elsewhere." Taken 

 altogether, the existing information points to con- 

 ditional resources of at least 200,000 tons of lithium 

 in Canada. 



The vigorous prospecting for lithium in Canada 

 during the 1950's resulted in the recognition of a 

 great number of deposits. Mulligan (1965, table 6) 

 listed 67 known deposits and lithium localities. Yet, 

 in the absence of successful lithium mining, except 

 at Barraute, Quebec, enthusiasm quickly waned. It 

 may be surmised that exploration thus far has dis- 

 covered only a fraction of the total amount of lith- 

 ium actually available. An estimate of hypothetical 

 resources amounting to 1 million tons of lithium 

 seems plausible. 



AFRICA 



The two principal sources in Africa have been the 

 Bikita pegmatite, Rhodesia, and the Karibib and 

 Warmbad districts. South West Africa. Symons 

 (1961, p. 145-148) reported that on December 31, 

 1960, the reserves (here converted to short tons) at 

 Bikita were 6,700,000 tons of various categories of 

 material containing an average of 2.90 percent LiaO, 

 or 90,000 tons of lithium. For South West Africa, 

 Kesler (1960, p. 527) estimated "about 350,000 tons 

 of crude lepidolite ores mostly containing 20 to 50 



