Mr. Sandy MacDougall reports
ALBA INVESTMENT IN NORAM UPDATE
Alba Minerals Ltd. currently holds an investment of 3.8 million
common shares in the share capital of Noram Ventures Inc. The company is incredibly pleased with
the release of an updated resource estimate, which includes the two phases of drilling completed
during fiscal 2018.
The following is excerpted from Noram's news release dated Feb. 21, 2019, and available in full
on Noram's SEDAR profile.
Noram Ventures has released a new inferred resource estimate for the Zeus lithium
property, which is adjacent to Albemarle's lithium brine producer in Clayton Valley, Nevada. At a lithium cut-off of 900 parts per million, the new inferred resource is 145 million tonnes at a grade of 1,145 parts per million lithium,
more than 8.5 times the previously reported estimate.
In 2018, Noram completed two additional phases of drilling (the phase 2 and phase 3 drill programs),
which are newly incorporated into the new inferred resource calculation. In total, 60 drill holes have been
included within the resource area. The new inferred resource estimate is 145 million tonnes at a grade of
1,145 parts per million lithium at a cut-off grade of 900 parts per million Li (please see the attached table). Sensitivity analyses at 300 parts per million Li cut-off and
600 parts per million Li cut-off are also given in the attached table. While the updated National Instrument 43-101 report is not yet finalized, it is
expected within the next 45 days and the company's qualified person (Bradley C. Peek) feels sufficiently
certain that these preliminary calculated values are reasonable and will not vary significantly from the final
NI 43-101 report values.
INFERRED RESOURCES FOR THE ZEUS LITHIUM DEPOSIT, CLAYTON VALLEY, NEVADA
Cut-off grade
300 ppm Li 600 ppm Li 900 ppm Li mineral
sensitivity analysis sensitivity analysis resource estimate
Tonnes (thousands) 330,670 251,526 145,168
Grade (ppm) 858 984 1,145
Contained Li (kg) 283,796,297 247,569,218 166,238,452
This expanded resource estimate for the Zeus lithium deposit is 8.5 times the tonnage of the previous
resource reported in 2017 as well as at a higher grade (the previous inferred resource reported 17 million tonnes
at 1,060 parts per million Li (see Noram press release dated Nov. 21, 2017). At a cut-off grade
of 900 parts per million, the grade of 1,145 parts per million lithium corresponds to a lithium carbonate equivalent grade of 0.61 weight per cent
Li2CO3 and the contained lithium corresponds to 880,000 tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent (one kilogram of Li equals
5.323 kilograms of Li2CO3). Current lithium carbonate (purity of 99.5 per cent) prices in China are $12,500 to $14,500 per tonne
(as of Feb. 9, 2019).
The inferred resource reported here is considered an update of the inferred resource reported in Peek and
Spanjers (2017) and was estimated using a block model as well as the inverse distance squared method for the
calculations.
Higher-grade (greater than 1,000 parts per million
Li) material is open at depth and to the southeast, with the property boundary one kilometre to two kilometres away from the
currently defined inferred resource.
The deposit is within playa lake clays of the Miocene-Pliocene (2.5 million years old) Esmeralda
formation. Initial mineralogy studies on the clays at surface and in drill core indicate the following favourable
features: (i) 35 per cent to 65 per cent of the material is detrital gravel and sand, and can be separated from the clay minerals
during processing using sieves and cyclones. Separating this material effectively increases the grade twofold before leach treatment of the clays; (ii) the clay minerals are non-refractory and can be successfully
treated with sulphuric acid to extract lithium; (iii) approximately 5 per cent of the
material is calcium carbonate and may be separated along with the other coarse-grained material. This can
significantly reduce the amount of acid necessary to extract lithium during processing.
Two other favourable indicators come from the assay ICP geochemical data, as follows: (i) there is marked
sodium enrichment within 10 metres of the surface, which is believed to reflect residual salts and suggests
that some of the lithium resource may be soluble in water alone, as is the case elsewhere in the Esmeralda formation; (ii) there is a notable enrichment in rubidium at the hundreds of ppm level. Rubidium, like
lithium, is an alkali element and may be recoverable during processing.
In the coming months, Noram intends to conduct a preliminary economic assessment study aimed at a
detailed understanding of the geological and mineralogical controls on mineralization in order to determine
the most cost-effective, efficient and environmentally friendly methods of lithium extraction, with the goal of
producing a marketable lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide product.
The Noram management team commented: "If you want to develop a lithium deposit, Clayton Valley is
high on the list of places to do so, with Albemarle's Silver Peak lithium brine operations next door. We note
that the Tesla lithium battery Gigafactory is 220 kilometres down the road and is one of at least 10 lithium battery
factories recently built or under construction for the global auto sector. We aim to work with our neighbours
in Clayton Valley, under the guidance of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Nevada Bureau of
Mines, to develop these lithium resources to support the future of green energy."
The mineral resource estimates in this press release use the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and
Petroleum (CIM) standards on mineral resources and reserves definitions and guidelines. According
to the CIM definitions, a mineral resource must be potentially economic in that it must be "in such form and
quantity and of such grade or quality that it has reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction."
The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Bradley C.
Peek, MSc, a certified professional geologist who is independent of Noram Ventures and a qualified
person with respect to Noram's Clayton Valley lithium project as defined under NI 43-101.
We seek Safe Harbor.
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