Dr. Kaihui Yang reports

CANADIAN NORTH RESOURCES INC. PROVIDES AN UPDATE ON ITS METALLURGICAL TESTING PROGRAMS AT THE FERGUSON LAKE PROJECT

Canadian North Resources Inc. has released encouraging results from its series of flotation bench tests of various domains of mineralized samples obtained from its 100-per-cent-owned Ferguson Lake project in Nunavut, Canada, which were conducted during 2023. The program and results are built upon metallurgical testing that completed by the company in 2016.

"The consideration of this flotation flowsheet could significantly improve the economic potential and viability of the Ferguson Lake project," said Dr. Trevor Boyd, the technical adviser and qualified person of the company. "It provides a road map forward in its development. The test results also demonstrate more options are available for the continued improvement of the metal concentrates and recoveries."

The company believes that this flotation-gravity flowsheet could be a low-capital-cost option for the potential mine development of the Ferguson Lake project, although the metal recoveries are lower than hydrometallurgy. Much effort has been devoted to the hydrometallurgical tests historically and by the company, and the results demonstrated very high (greater than 90 per cent) recoveries for copper, nickel, cobalt, palladium and platinum from the massive sulphide materials. Alternatively, hydrometallurgy could be a technically highly effective option for the mine development of the Ferguson Lake project, of which the capital and operating costs are higher.

Based on these results, in 2024, the company plans to continue to conduct follow-up investigations of both flotation and hydrometallurgical processes, including new technologies such as bio-hydrometallurgy, for the extraction of metals for the Ferguson Lake project. The company will focus on the low-carbon footprint and green energy options for the project development.

The 2023 test work program was completed on two domain types of sample material selected from the 2022 Canadian North diamond drilling program containing semi-massive to stringer to disseminated sulphide mineralization with sample head grades. These samples are compared with the high-grade massive sulphide bulk-sample material used in the 2016 testing program. All the testing programs were completed at the SGS Canada Inc. Lakefield facility in Ontario.

The program and independent review of batch 1 and 2016 bulk sample, medium- to high-sulphide-type mineralized materials encompassed gravity, flotation and magnetic separation test work. Bench tests successfully produced saleable up to 30 per cent Cu and between 37 and 62 grams per tonne platinum group metals concentrates with 80-per-cent Cu recovery. An independent review of the mineralogy of the deposit estimates the pyrrhotite (iron sulphide) to pentlandite (Ni sulphide) ratio is in the range of 35:1 in the massive and semi-massive sulphide zones of the deposit, with the Ni deportment to pentlandite to be about 71 per cent envisioning the creation of a potentially payable 10 per cent Ni-bearing concentrate with 51-per-cent Ni recovery.

In general, the bench testing of the batch 1 and 2016 samples, produced high-grade copper and variable-grade Ni/Cu concentrates ranging on a grade-recovery curve from 5 to 20 per cent Cu-Ni with recoveries of up to 98 per cent Cu, 61 per cent Ni and 35 to 75 per cent PGMs. It was concluded that there is potential to significantly improve these results with additional testing using optimized conditions based upon the company's improved understanding of the Cu, Ni and PGMs mineral deportment.

Bench testing of the batch 2 sample, which was obtained from the low-sulphide PGM-rich-type mineralized material, successfully created potentially payable precious metal concentrates in which the highest PGM grade achieved was 92.1 g/t Pd plus 96.5 g/t Pt (totalling 189 g/t) and recoveries of up to 75 per cent Pd and 55 per cent Pt when gravity separation was included in the flotation flowsheet. Additional tests and investigations of the PGM mineralogy of the deposit are expected to improve these results.

Based upon the review of the historic and CNRI flotation test results completed by SRK Consulting for the three types of mineralized materials at the Ferguson Lake project, it was concluded, for the first time in the history of the project, that three payable Cu-PGM, Ni-Cu-Co and PGM-Cu concentrates could be produced using a flotation-gravity flowsheet.

This work resulted in the application of total recoveries of 95 per cent Cu, 51 per cent Ni, 89 per cent Co, 76 per cent Pd and 60 per cent Pt for the massive sulphide mineralized material and 78 per cent Cu, 29 per cent Ni, 48 per cent Co, 60 per cent Pd and 70 per cent Pt for the low-sulphide PGM mineralized material in the creation of the independent National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource statement (Canadian North news release, March 19, 2024) and accounts for these inputs in the estimate of the deposit's cut-off net smelter return.

Qualified person

The technical contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Dr. Boyd, PGeo, a qualified person as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101 standards.

About Canadian North Resources Inc.

Canadian North Resources is an exploration and development company focusing on the critical metals for the clean-energy, electric vehicles, battery and high-tech industries. The company is advancing its 100-per-cent-owned Ferguson Lake nickel, copper, cobalt, palladium and platinum project in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, Canada.

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