Digital Data 2010-0001
| Author(s) | Date | 2013-06-06 |
This lithium ground- and formation-water geochemical dataset will enable present and future companies to better evaluate their targets and characterize their resource estimates by being able to distinguish between background and anomalous concentrations of lithium throughout Alberta.
The dataset comprises lithium geochemical data from ground and formation water in Alberta and near the Alberta border. The data were captured from several databases, including those from Alberta Geological Survey (oil and gas wells database, AERI and Beaver River Basin projects), and the Alberta Research Council. In total there are 1,511 records, of which 48 records have >75 mg/L Li. Nineteen analyses have >100 mg/L Li (up to 140 mg/L) and occur within the Middle to Upper Devonian Beaverhill Lake Formation and Woodbend and Winterburn groups of west-central to northwestern Alberta.
Economic concentrations of lithium are known to form in either lithium pegmatite or in high-lithium brine and clay. A few of the world's oil-field waters also have medium to high lithium content. During the mid-1990s, several government reports showed that lithium values of up to 140 mg/L Li occurred in west-central Alberta formation waters of the Beaverhill Lake and Woodbend groups; however, minimal data were publicly released.