An anonymous director reports

DEFENSE METALS COMPLETES HYDROMETALLURGICAL PILOT PLANT TESTING AND INITIATES PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY DESIGN WORK

Defense Metals Corp. has completed phase 2 hydrometallurgical pilot plant testwork for its wholly owned Wicheeda rare earth element (REE) project and has commenced prefeasibility study (PFS) work.

John Goode, Defense Metals' metallurgical consultant, noted, "With the completion of the recent beneficiation testwork and hydrometallurgical testwork and pilot plant operations, we are now ready to provide our engineering consultants, with the metallurgical test data necessary for them to commence the design work that forms a critical part of the Wicheeda project prefeasibility study."

Defense Metals intends to complete the PFS during first half 2024.

As reported on April 25, 2023, Defense Metals completed a phase 1 (five-day) hydrometallurgical pilot plant operation in April, 2023, and used data generated during that testwork to design an expanded phase 2 (10-day) pilot plant operation. Phase 2 operations were performed by SGS Canada Inc. at Lakefield, Ont., and were completed on May 3, 2023, after processing 370 kilograms of flotation concentrate produced in an earlier flotation pilot plant operation (see Defense Metals' news release dated Sept. 23, 2020).

The results of the phase 2 pilot plant operation confirm the phase 1 results achieving extraction of Pr (praseodymium) and Nd (neodymium) from the acid bake calcine of more than 90 per cent. Significantly, the mixed rare earth product generated by the phase 2 operation was markedly higher in purity than that of the phase 1 operation because of a change to oxalate precipitation.

Based on the results of the phase 1 and phase 2 pilot plants, Defense Metals believes it has all metallurgical test data necessary to support the prefeasibility study.

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information relating to metallurgy that is contained in this news release was provided, reviewed and approved by John Goode, PEng, metallurgical consultant to Defense Metals, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About the Wicheeda rare earth element property

Defense Metals' 100-per-cent-owned, 4,262-hectare (approximately 10,532-acre) Wicheeda REE project is located approximately 80 kilometres northeast of the city of Prince George, B.C., population 77,000. The Wicheeda property is readily accessible by all-weather gravel roads and is near infrastructure, including hydro power transmission lines and gas pipelines. The nearby Canadian National Railway and major highways allow easy access to the port facilities at Prince Rupert, the closest major North American port to Asia.

The 2021 Wicheeda REE project preliminary economic assessment technical report (PEA) outlined a robust after-tax net present value (discounted at 8 per cent) of $517-million and an 18-per-cent internal rate of return (1). This PEA contemplated an open-pit mining operation with a 1.75 to 1 (waste to mill feed) strip ratio providing a 1.8-million-tonne-per-year mill throughput producing an average of 25,423 tonnes of rare earth oxides annually over a 16-year mine life. A phase 1 initial pit strip ratio of 0.63 to 1 (waste to mill feed) would yield rapid access to higher-grade surface mineralization in year 1 and payback of $440-million initial capital within five years.

About Defense Metals Corp.

Defense Metals is focused on the development of its 100-per-cent-owned Wicheeda REE project with a goal of producing rare earth elements that are commonly used in the production of defence and green energy technologies, such as rare earth magnets used in wind turbines and in permanent magnet motors for electric vehicles.

Defense Metals trades in Canada under the symbol DEFN on the TSX Venture Exchange, in the United States under DFMTF on the OTCQB and in Germany on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under 35D.

Defense Metals is a proud member of Discovery Group.

(1) Independent preliminary economic assessment for the Wicheeda rare earth element project, British Columbia, Canada, dated Jan. 6, 2022, with an effective date of Nov. 7, 2021, and prepared by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., is filed under Defense Metals' issuer profile on SEDAR.

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