Mr. Mario Pezzente reports

MUSK METALS ACQUIRES THE LAC DU KM 35 GERMANIUM PROPERTY IN QUEBEC

Musk Metals Corp. has entered into a mineral and option agreement to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in the Lac du Km 35 property, comprising 50 claims covering an area of 2,767 hectares (27.7 square kilometres).

Property description

The Lac du Km 35 germanium property is approximately 40 kilometres east of the mining town of Chibougamau in the Nord-du-Quebec region of Quebec and has excellent access through Highway 167 and a main lumber road that transects the whole property from the west to the east as well as a network of secondary roads.

The property is underlain by the volcano-sedimentary sequence of the Roy group and its metamorphic equivalent, the Laganiere gneissic complex, that host the Lac Dore intrusive suite, which is a mafic-to-ultramafic stratiform and synvolcanic intrusion, and the later-stage Duberger felsic pluton; all these rock units belong to the northeastern portion of the Abitibi greenstone belt subprovince of Archean age. To the west of the property, rocks were metamorphosed at the greenschist facies where the chlorite mineral is ubiquitous while the eastern portion has reached the amphibolite metamorphism grade.

A prominent structural element is the ductile Faribault shear zone (FSZ), oriented east-southeast and located toward the eastern part of the property. The FSZ dips to the south-southwest and ends to the Grenville Front, which extends southwest-northeast for several hundreds of kilometres. The Grenville Front separates the Abitibi greenstone belt from younger Mesoproterozoic rocks and is only a few kilometres to the east of the property. The FSZ is an important feature that could have been joined by other permeable zones at depth as a preferential conduit for hydrothermal fluids.

Discovered by government geologists in 1998 and never followed up, the Laganiere germanium showing consists of a peridotite outcrop within the Laganiere gneissic complex, which comprises amphibolites and hornblende and biotite gneisses. The Laganiere showing returned a value of 0.02 per cent (186 parts per million) germanium and is currently the highest germanium value ever reported from an outcrop in the whole of Quebec.

The Laganiere germanium showing is located besides the main lumber road and immediately adjacent to the south to a cluster of electromagnetic anomalies of roughly 400 metres by 400 metres in size that were never tested. The Laganiere germanium showing is also 450 metres northeast of the FSZ, 800 metres from the southern margin of the Duberger felsic pluton and approximately two kilometres to the west of the Grenville Front. Apart from regional mapping and sampling of government geologists, the Laganiere germanium showing area remain vastly underexplored and overlooked and constitutes the prime focus for Musk.

Recent exploration work performed in 2024, consisting of prospecting and sampling, collected 39 outcrop samples. Values up to 0.27 per cent nickel, 0.04 per cent cobalt, 0.24 per cent copper and 0.21 gram per tonne gold were obtained from these samples. The highest zinc value is 0.07 per cent and only three samples had overall zinc values over 0.05 per cent. Due to the digestion method selected, germanium values were deemed not reliable.

Germanium metallogeny

Germanium has a crustal abundance of 1.3 parts per million and do not tend to accumulate within a specific source rock. Some coal deposits have higher germanium concentrations while some carbonate rocks are depleted in germanium. Similar to common rocks, the concentration of germanium in silicate minerals is relatively uniform at between 1.5 parts per million and 3.5 parts per million germanium, meaning that germanium concentrations in source rocks are not a limiting factor for generating a germanium-enriched mineral deposit.

The germanium transport and solubility are favoured in lower temperature and oxidized hydrothermal fluids and its deposition within an orebody will occur when pH rises when encountering carbonate rocks or rapid cooling in the absence of carbonate rocks.

A striking feature of germanium is its association to sphalerite which is a common zinc sulphide mineral. Sphalerite can contain several hundred parts per million of germanium and is, by far, the main carrier of germanium. Sphalerite is present in many ore-type deposits, notably in volcanic massive sulphide, Broken Hill and zinc-bearing vein system deposits.

Of all common silicate alteration minerals, chlorite has the greatest potential to sequester zinc as chlorite can have zinc concentrations up to 2,500 parts per million. However, at higher temperature, zinc can be leached from chlorite-rich zones. Such high leaching temperature could be provided by magmatic fluids stemming from a nearby intrusion or metamorphic fluids. Zinc transport conditions are also suitable to germanium and could explain its well-known association.

The presence of ubiquitous chlorite on the entire property and of heat engines such as the Duberger pluton and the high-inducing metamorphism Grenville Front and the FSZ are favourable conditions for the formation of a potential zinc deposit enriched in germanium. Musk intends to carry out detailed exploration in the vicinity of the Laganiere germanium showing and elsewhere on the property.

About germanium

Germanium is a hard, greyish and brittle metalloid. Germanium has many growing applications in electronics and solar, in fibre optics, in and infrared optics for civil and military uses. Germanium is in the list of critical metals in Canada, the United States and the European Union.

Since Dec. 3, 2024, China, the largest producer of refined germanium, has banned germanium exports to the United States. Germanium is not an openly traded commodity and recent spot prices have germanium over $4,000 (U.S.) per kilogram.

The company cautions that the geological information provided in this news release is of historical nature and mineralization may not be representative of mineralization on the Lac du Km 35 property.

Terms of the transaction

In consideration of this interest, Musk has agreed to issue to the arm's-length vendor, 250,000 common shares of Musk and 500,000 warrants of Musk at the closing date, make a cash payment of $30,000 three months after the closing date, and issue 250,000 common shares of Musk at the first anniversary of the closing date. The vendor will retain a net smelter return (NSR) royalty of 2 per cent, of which 50 per cent of the NSR royalty (1 per cent) can be purchased for $1-million any time by Musk. The closing date of this transaction is on or before Jan. 25, 2025.

Closing of this acquisition remains subject to the completion of successful due diligence at the sole discretion of the company and upon receipt of regulatory and other approvals if required. The warrants to be issued in this transaction shall be exercisable over a period of three years. The terms of the warrant exercise shall be two warrants and the payment of five cents to be exchanged into one share. All shares issued under this transaction shall be subject to a four-month-and-one-day statutory hold period.

Benoit Moreau, PEng, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and vice-president of exploration for Musk Metals, is responsible for the technical information contained in this news release.

About Musk Metals Corp.

Musk Metals is a publicly traded exploration company focused on the development of highly prospective, discovery-stage mineral properties located in some of Canada's top mining jurisdictions. The company's properties are in the Chapais-Chibougamau, Abitibi, Upper Laurentides, Temiscamingue and James Bay regions of Quebec and the Golden Triangle district of British Columbia.

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