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Iconic talks up metallurgical results at Bonnie Claire

2019-07-25 13:31 ET - News Release

Mr. Richard Kern reports

ICONIC ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL METALLURGICAL RESULTS BONNIE CLAIRE LITHIUM PROJECT, NEVADA

St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. has presented a phase 1 independent review of its phase 1 report titled, "Bonnie Claire Metallurgical Evaluation and Process Development," to Iconic Minerals Ltd. St-Georges Eco-Mining has developed nitric acid leaching methodology that puts between 99.97 per cent and 100 per cent of the lithium from the sediments into solution at room temperature within one to four hours. St-Georges Eco-Mining has reached the phase 1 benchmark, which calls for the issuance of two million of Iconic's common shares to St-Georges. The shares will remain in escrow for three years. Iconic has also met its other obligations derived from this agreement by participating in St-Georges Eco-Mining's private placement in January, 2019, for $100,000.

Additional details of the nitric acid leaching are quoted herein from a St-Georges Eco-Mining press release dated July 24, 2019: "Leaching with a passivating acid normally used to clean steel and passivate the welds of stainless steel was performed in the hope of selectively removing the magnesium and all the salt metals like sodium, calcium, lithium and magnesium.

"The initial results with a four-hour leach showed that all the salt metals and carbonate formations leached easily. This follows the logic of cleaning acid and leaves most of the other elements behind, such as silica, alumina, potassium.

"Multiple one-hour leach tests confirmed the leaching of 100 per cent of the lithium, leaving behind most of the leachable elements from other acids, such as potassium. The only loss of lithium that occurred during some of these tests was due to the water in the filter with the solids and represented less than 0.03 per cent of the total lithium value. It also corresponds directly to the water retained with this type of fine material. Additional trials are being performed with reduced time of contact and temperature to optimize the lithium-bearing fines leaching.

"The lithium in the superfines leached completely in each test performed with nitric acid. The trials to selectively optimize leaching the lithium with less calcium and magnesium are expected to be performed in the third quarter of 2019. It is expected that calcium can be reduced partially by filtering the coarser calcium formation, as per SGS results, and partially with less contact time with the acid; the same for magnesium. New samples will be treated once received."

Iconic looks forward to the St-Georges Eco-Mining phase report, which will include plans for a pilot plant.

Bonnie Claire lithium property characteristics

The property is located within Sarcobatus Valley, which is approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) long and 20 kilometres (12 miles) wide. Quartz-rich volcanic tuffs, which contain anomalous amounts of lithium, occur within and adjacent to the valley. Geochemical analysis of the local salt flats has yielded lithium values of up to 340 parts per million. The gravity low within the valley is 20 kilometres (12 miles) long, and the current estimates of depth to basement rocks range from 600 to 1,200 metres (2,000 to 4,000 feet). Four drill holes have identified an open-ended, National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource of 28.58 billion kilograms of lithium carbonate equivalent. The drilling that defined the current resource only covered an area of 3.0 square kilometres (1.2 square miles), while previously run metallurgical geophysics show a potentially mineralized area of 27.3 square kilometres (10.5 square miles). Drilling to date has shown strong correlation between the MT results and the lithium mineralization. The thickness of the lithium mineralization is unknown, but drilling indicates it is greater than 600 metres (2,000 feet). The current claim block covers an area of 57.5 square kilometres (22.2 square miles). Further drilling has been permitted, and metallurgy to determine the most efficient recovery method is currently in progress.

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