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Shortly after Canada evicted Chinese investors from certain critical minerals assets, the U.S. Department of Defense began developing its own AI program to estimate critical mineral prices and predict supplies as it pushes to jumpstart U.S. production that is essential to long-term national and energy security.
North America is at a critical junction, and the ground beneath Case Lake in northeastern Ontario holds the prospect of helping to secure one mineral in particular—the lack of which poses a significant security problem.
The metal is cesium (Cs), and the Canadian company that just launched a new drilling campaign at Case Lake targeting what could end up being the world’s only new source of this rare mineral has been at the center of an East-West struggle for control of future supply.
As Power Metals Corp (TSXV:PWM,OTC: PWRMF) drills down into Case Lake’s known lithium, tantalum and cesium deposits, it’s become a focal point of North America’s push to secure domestic supply and keep it out of dominating Chinese hands.
Cesium is central to the United States’ goal of winning the 5G race, it plays a key role in aircraft guidance systems, oil and gas drilling, and global positioning satellites.
Cesium is the rarest and most electropositive of five naturally occurring alkali metals, but it is not mined in the United States, which is completely dependent on imports.
And now, this critical metal is the sweetener at Power Metal’s Case Lake lithium play and it’s also the centerpiece of a supply power struggle between China one hand, and Australia and North America on the other…
