On November 4, 2013, the Federal government approved the project, allowing the company to proceed with formal applications for the required land use permits and water licenses.
[4] The Nechalacho Project at Thor Lake is situated in an area known as the Akaitcho Territory, which is subject to a comprehensive land claim negotiation between several communities of the Dene Nation and Canada's federal government.
Avalon has demonstrated it is able to produce high-purity petalite from the deposit, for use in the glass-ceramics industry, as well as battery-grade lithium chemicals for use in the lithium-ion battery sector.
The Lilypad property consists of 14 claims covering 3,108 hectares located approximately 350 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, near the community of Fort Hope in the traditional territory of the Eabametoong First Nation.
Work at Lilypad in 2001-2002 focused on defining tantalum resources, but was also successful in identifying widespread occurrences of the cesium ore mineral pollucite in a field of highly fractionated lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite dykes.
In May 2014, Avalon entered into an agreement with the surface rights holder to secure access to lands held under the Special Licence for a limited drilling program, to confirm historic estimates of tin-copper-zinc resources remaining in the ground after production ceased at the East Kemptville mine in 1992, and bring them into compliance with NI 43–101 for reporting purposes.
The company's re-development model, as presently conceived, is an environmental remediation project that will be financed through the sale of tin concentrates recovered in large part from previously-mined mineralized material on the site.