Digging deep on the lithium and potash Crown land sale
Digging deep on the lithium and potash Crown land sale – a 97:1 ratio on land prices, just 30 miles apart
BY BRIAN ZINCHUK
The Government of Saskatchewan’s second subsurface mineral public offering of the fiscal year, held on Monday, November 25, 2024, raised $2,270,322.67 in revenue, driven by interest in lithium.
The sale continued pushing the boundaries of the southeast Saskatchewan lithium play to the north while filling in the few remaining holes of Crown land in the Stoughton area. It also showed a huge variation in pricing. One parcel, Block 1, north of Kisbey, went for $550,018 for 2,369 hectares, or $232 per hectare, while a similar sized parcel roughly 30 miles due south, located south of Lampman, went for just $6,397 for 2,676 hectares. That’s just $2.39 per hectare. That’s a ratio of 97:1 in pricing for a 30 mile difference in location.
Of the 13 subsurface permits posted for this offering, 12 received bids for a total area covering 22,922 hectares. Ten of the permits are prospective for lithium-in-brine while two are prospective for potash. The vast majority of the dollars went for the lithium parcels, with the potash parcels collectively bringing in just $20,137.
Millennium Land Ltd. made the highest bid, $909,357 for a 3,914 hectare permit block located north of Stoughton. That land is interspersed and southeast of Ocean Man First Nation’s core area. The company also had the winning bid, $550,018, for a second permit block totalling 2,369 hectares north of Kisbey. Both permit blocks are prospective for lithium in brine.
Hub City Lithium Corp., which is now going by the name EMP Metals after a change in its ownership structure this past fall, acquired two permits southwest of Stoughton totalling 1,405 hectares with a $354,161.53 bid. These permits are also prospective for lithium in brine. This is significant as EMP has drilled several wells in the area. Block 7, in particular, is close to the wells near the Viewfield Crater, where the company has reported the highest concentrations of brine lithium across Western Canada to date. Block 9 is
Block 2 expanded the lithium are to include 2,676 hectares south of Lampman, in the area that Hummingbird Oil has been doing much of its oil drilling. It was acquired by Sun Valley Land Ltd for $6,397.
One potash permit is in the Tuxford area and was awarded to Upcycle Minerals Inc., which bid $10,200 on the 4,276 hectare block. The second is near Davidson and was awarded to Sun Valley Land Ltd., which offered $9,937 for the 6,289 hectare block.
Next sale cancelled
The November subsurface mineral offering is the second of three public offerings scheduled for the 2024-25 fiscal year. Of note, due to the fact the February 10, 2025, offering received no posting requests by the Sept 24, 2024 deadline, it has been cancelled. That means this is the final Crown land sale of this type for this fiscal year.
Through two such offerings this fiscal year, the Ministry of Energy and Resources has raised $8,205,749, up from the $1,459,502.41 through the one public offering held last fiscal year.
The Ministry noted in its release, “Lithium is one of the 27 critical minerals occurring in Saskatchewan that will play a key role in the province achieving the goals set out in Saskatchewan’s Critical Minerals Strategy. Several firms are actively pursuing lithium exploration and production in the province.”
The next offering is scheduled for the 2025-26 fiscal year on July 7, 2025.