Diversified miner Rio Tinto is deepening its footprint in Canada’s James Bay lithium corridor, expanding an existing partnership with junior explorer Azimut Exploration to include new lithium rights on the Wabamisk East property in northern Quebec.

Under a revised option agreement announced Thursday, Rio Tinto Exploration Canada has secured exclusive lithium and related mineral rights on Wabamisk East - part of Azimut’s wholly owned Wabamisk property - adding to two earlier options over the Corvet and Kaanaayaa properties. The consolidation forms a new strategic exploration cluster known as the CKW Properties.

The deal highlights the mining giant’s growing ambition in lithium, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries. It also extends Rio Tinto’s influence across a mineral-rich region where it already holds a stake in the Whabouchi lithium deposit through its ownership in Nemaska Lithium.

The revised agreement allows Rio Tinto to earn a 50% interest in the CKW Properties by spending C$25-million on exploration and making C$1.7-million in cash payments by the end of 2028. Azimut will remain operator during the first phase.

Azimut said Rio Tinto had already spent about C$1.85-million and paid C$800 000 in cash. A further C$1.15-million must be deployed by the end of 2025, with additional aggressive exploration - including mapping and drilling - to follow.

Beyond that, Rio Tinto can increase its stake to 70% by investing another C$60-million over five years, at which point it becomes the operator. Azimut retains the right to be carried to production through a secured loan from Rio Tinto in exchange for an additional 5% interest - leaving Azimut with a 25% funded stake.

“The option on the Wabamisk East Property is for lithium and related minerals only,” Azimut said in a statement. “This new transaction aims to generate substantial value by advancing the project’s previously identified lithium potential.”

Wabamisk East hosts the Lithos target, an emerging spodumene pegmatite field where surface samples have returned up to 7.43% lithium oxide. The field, spanning a 4 km² area, remains open in all directions. Azimut continues to hold the gold and copper rights to the rest of the Wabamisk property, including the Fortin gold/antimony zone.

The Corvet and Kaanaayaa properties, which collectively span more than 600 km², also showed promising lithium potential in 2024 prospecting campaigns, with both hosting highly differentiated pegmatite bodies and multi-element geochemical anomalies.