LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Fulcrum Metals announced on Tuesday that it has identified gallium mineralisation across all assays from 15 drill holes at its Teck-Hughes and Sylvanite gold tailings projects in Ontario, Canada.
The AIM-traded firm said the presence of gallium, along with previously-reported tellurium, positioned the projects as potential domestic sources of critical minerals in addition to precious metals.

It said the assays revealed consistent gallium grades averaging approximately 17 grams per tonne, with mineralisation beginning at surface and extending to depths of up to 7.32 metres.

All holes ended in mineralised material, and the tailings were already crushed to fine particles, making them well-suited for reprocessing.

Both gallium and tellurium are listed as critical minerals by the Canadian government, with no current domestic production of gallium and minimal tellurium output.

Global production remained heavily concentrated in China.

As of mid-April, gallium was trading at around $246 per kilogram and tellurium at $102 per kilogram.

Fulcrum said it would proceed with additional sampling and metallurgical studies as part of an optimisation phase, building on its established reprocessing concept at Teck-Hughes.

The company estimated that the two projects contained a combined 10 million tonnes of mine waste, and viewed them as prospective multi-commodity assets with gold, silver, gallium and tellurium identified to date.

"This is potentially a significant development - our tailings projects are emerging as a sustainable source of gold and now critical minerals which play a pivotal role in the global energy transition," said chief executive officer Ryan Mee.

"Our focus remains on gold, however the identification of critical minerals as potential additional products at our tailings projects could deliver tangible value at a time of a changing political landscape in which Canada and the West are looking to reduce the reliance of supply from China.

"We will need to carry out more detailed sampling and metallurgical testing to ascertain and evaluate the potential impact of these critical minerals and others not yet assayed for, which will be factored into the next steps of optimising and scaling the initial proven concept at Teck Hughes."

At 0905 BST, shares in Fulcrum Metals were down 0.21% at 4.74p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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