Mr. Chris Grove reports

COMMERCE RESOURCES ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN INDICATED MINERAL RESOURCE FOR THE ASHRAM RARE EARTH & FLUORSPAR DEPOSIT, QUEBEC

Commerce Resources Corp. has released an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Ashram rare earth and fluorspar deposit. The Ashram deposit, wholly owned by the company, is located in northeastern Quebec, Canada, approximately 130 kilometres south of the community of Kuujjuaq.

The updated MRE for the Ashram rare earth and fluorspar deposit firmly establishes it as a globally significant rare earth element (REE) deposit, and one of the largest monazite-mineralized carbonatite REE deposits in the world: 73.2 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.89 per cent TREO (total rare earth oxide) and 6.6 per cent CaF2 (calcium fluoride) (indicated), and 131.1 Mt at 1.91 per cent TREO and 4 per cent CaF2 (inferred), at a cut-off of $287 net metal return (NMR) per tonne.

Ashram also continues to demonstrate very high NdPr (neodymium-praseodymium) distributions (that is, percentage of neodymium plus praseodymium oxide of the TREO) at 21.2 per cent NdPr (indicated) and 21.4 per cent NdPr (inferred), exceeding that of several active global producers. The favourable distribution starts at surface, allowing these high-value elements to be targeted early on in a potential open-pit extraction scenario and, thereby, enhancing the project's strategic value and operational efficiency. This enrichment in the magnet feed REEs also extends to dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb).

The MRE update underscores the Ashram deposit's potential as a long-term, sustainable source of critical minerals, vital for the evolving technology and energy sectors. The company remains committed to advancing the project, with continuing work to further delineate the deposit's full potential, and a planned niobium drill program poised to unlock additional value.

Chris Grove, president and chief executive officer of Commerce Resources, stated: "We are very excited by this updated mineral resource estimate for the Ashram deposit, as it positions the company to become the front-runner in providing a long-term source of magnet-feed REE supply to the North American and European markets. Additionally, the Ashram deposit has a fluorspar component which makes it one of the largest potential sources of fluorspar in the world. This milestone will be the new basis of future economic and development studies that further derisk and unlock the development potential of this asset. In addition to the Ashram deposit, the Eldor carbonatite remains highly prospective for a number of high-value commodities, including niobium and phosphate minerals."

Patrik Schmidt, company vice-president of exploration, comments: "We are thrilled with this updated resource estimate, which continues to demonstrate the consistency of the magnet-feed REE enrichment throughout the Ashram deposit. This resource has firmly established Ashram as one of the largest monazite-mineralized carbonatite rare earth deposits globally and remains open at depth."

The primary objective of the mineral resource update was to increase the confidence of resources from the inferred category to the indicated category to support economic and development studies. This conversion was highly successful with an 164-per-cent increase in the indicated resource category compared with the prior MRE completed in 2012 (see news release dated March 6, 2012).

The 2024 MRE was completed in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 with an effective date of April 4, 2024, and is based on 117 diamond drill holes totalling 28,783 metres of NQ, HQ and BTW size drill core.

The table entitled "Mineral resource sensitivity analysis based on NMR cost/t cut-off" illustrates the sensitivity of the 2024 Ashram deposit MRE with respect to various net metal return cut-offs for a potential open-pit scenario with reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction. The figures provided in these tables should not be interpreted as a mineral resource statement. The selected cut-off NMR for the base case is $287/tonne with the revenue factor 1 pit shell constraint.

Pit optimization

A pit design was developed which constrains the pit shell to ensure reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction. The pit geometry considered an overall pit slope of 52 degrees based on previous geotechnical studies. The pit design considered three-year annualized average pricing (2021, 2022 and 2023) for five payable oxides ($1.25 (U.S.)/kilogram (kg) for La2O3 (lanthanum oxide), $95 (U.S.)/kg for Pr2O3 (praseodymium oxide), $95 (U.S.)/kg for Nd2O3 (neodymium oxide), $1,500 (U.S.)/kg for Tb2O3 (terbium oxide) and $375 (U.S.)/kg for Dy2O3 (dysprosium oxide)), which were converted to Canadian dollars using an exchange rate of $1.30:$1 (U.S.). The pricing was sourced from Adamas Intelligence's rare earth pricing quarterly outlook (Q1 2024).

The pit optimization considered the following combined metallurgical recoveries for the concentrator and hydromet plant: 60.5 per cent for La2O3, 58.9 per cent for Pr2O3, 59 per cent for Nd2O3, 42.7 per cent for Tb2O3 and 38.6 per cent for Dy2O3. A mining cost of $8/tonne (plus an incremental mining cost with depth of two cents/tonne for every 10 m of depth), variable operating costs of $60/tonne milled for the concentrator, $3,000/tonne of mixed REO (rare earth oxide) product for the hydromet plant and $7,700/tonne of product for the separation plant, fixed annual operating costs of $25-million, $10-million, $11-million, $10-million, for G&A (general and administrative), the concentrator, hydromet plant and separation plant, respectively, and transportation costs of $200/tonne of mixed REO product. The operating costs have been established using a combination of comparable projects and industry benchmarks and are therefore conceptual in nature.

The aforementioned economic parameters result in a net metal return cut-off of $154/tonne. An elevated cut-off of $287/tonne was considered as the base case for the MRE to ensure reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction over a reasonable time frame.

The resulting pit shell has a conical shape with a diameter of approximately 1,200 m, a depth of roughly 600 m and has a 2.7:1 ratio of waste to mineralized material.

Metallurgical methods

The mineral processing and hydrometallurgy assumptions are based on the optimized flowsheet announced in the March 4, 2024, press release. This was a significant simplification and optimization of the Ashram deposit's front-end mineral processing flowsheet whereby 30 per cent to over 35 per cent TREO monazite mineral concentrates at strong recovery are produced using only flotation. In addition, a streamlined hydrometallurgical flowsheet was developed by L3 Process Development and demonstrated at bench scale for the downstream processing of the monazite flotation concentrate. The hydrometallurgical flowsheet uses a standard acid bake-water leach process followed by thorium removal and direct rare earth element (REE) precipitation.

Qualified persons

The independent qualified persons for the 2024 MRE, as defined by National Instrument 43-101 guidelines, are Pierre-Luc Richard, PGeo, of PLR Resources Inc. (mineral resource estimate), Jeffrey Cassoff, PEng, of BBA Inc. (pitshell optimization and cut-off grade), Jordan Zampini, PEng, from DRA Global (mineral processing parameters), and Tommee Larochelle, PEng, of L3 Process Development (hydrometallurgical parameters). The effective date of the 2024 MRE is April 4, 2024. The qualified persons have approved the technical contents of this press release.

Mr. Richard has worked in the mining industry for over 20 years with various commodities over the years, including REE projects. Mr. Richard has acted as qualified person (QP) or lead QP for a considerable number of technical reports, mineral resource estimates and due diligence reviews as a consultant with different firms, and for PLR Resources since 2022. Mr. Richard has been involved with the Ashram project since 2021 and has visited the property.

About the Ashram deposit

The Ashram deposit is central to the Eldor carbonatite complex and bordered by an earlier-staged calcio-carbonatite and various altered (fenitized) wallrock units. In contrast to its host rocks, the Ashram deposit appears as a magnetic low and gravity high. Currently, the deposit geometry and geology can best be described as a moderate to steeply northeast-dipping ovoid, with simple rare earth mineralogy (monazite, bastnaesite, xenotime) that has an unusual enrichment in magnet feed elements (that is, higher Nd plus Pr oxide/TREO). The deposit is a single mineralized body outcropping at surface and has a drill delineated footprint of over 700 metres along strike, 300 m across and 600 m deep, and remains open at depth.

About Commerce Resources Corp.

Commerce Resources is a junior mineral resource company focused on the development of the Ashram rare earth and fluorspar deposit located in Quebec, Canada. The company is positioning to be one of the lowest-cost rare earth producers globally, with a specific focus on being a long-term supplier of mixed rare earth carbonate and/or NdPr oxide to the global market. The Ashram deposit is characterized by simple rare earth (monazite, bastnaesite, xenotime) and gangue (carbonates) mineralogy, a large tonnage resource at favourable grade, and has demonstrated the production of high-grade (more than 30 per cent to 45 per cent TREO) mineral concentrates at high recovery (more than 60 per cent to 75 per cent) in line with active global producers. Additionally, the Ashram deposit has a fluorspar component which makes it one of the largest potential sources of fluorspar in the world and could be a long-term supplier to the met-spar and acid-spar markets.

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