James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY) is in the fortunate position of holding one of the largest land positions, spanning some 301.68km2, along the La Grande greenstone belt as well as the largest holding along the premium La Grande lithium trend in Canada’s James Bay.

The project is along trend from Winsome Resources’ (ASX:WR1) Cancet lithium project and Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX:PMT) Corvette asset.

An initial exploration program was carried out on the La Grande project towards the end of 2023 following a review over the large quantity of data gathered in the aftermath of the company’s successful IPO. 

The program was curtailed by snowfall, which meant that the team placed a heavy focus on aerial surveys and walk-up drill targets identified at the Aero property.

So far, the company has generated more than 250 high-priority targets across La Grande within the Joule, Aero and Aqua properties.

The Joule property is JBY’s flagship asset, comprising a ~24km deformation zone running east to west with deformation widths of up to 1.5km in the northeastern part of the area.

Lidar was used to measure and map out the variations in slope, aspect and elevation to study landforms, which identified and confirmed high-priority areas showing some of the key geological features expected locally of (LCT) pegmatites.

At Aero, extensive rock grab samples, channel samples, hand-held XRF and LIBs testing were completed, uncovering two large fields of fractionated pegmatites.

Meanwhile, high-priority targets have been identified at the Aqua property, just ~200m to the east of spodumene showings announced by neighbour Fin Resources (ASX:FIN) which returned up to 6.85% Li2O.

“We have a full year to understand the significant number of targets identified within our properties,” JBY executive director Andrew Dornan says.

“We’ve barely scratched the surface, with this year providing an opportunity for the team to understand all corners of our La Grande project.”

JBY says data from this program has provided the team with a considerable volume of key geological topographical data, which has already allowed planning to begin for exploration works in 2024.

An exploration camp has been established on site for field prospecting and mapping campaigns.