Mr. Harry Barr reports

NEW AGE METALS DELIVERS NEW POSITIVE PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF THE RIVER VALLEY PALLADIUM PROJECT

New Age Metals Inc. has released the positive results of a new independent preliminary economic assessment (PEA) prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 for the River Valley project, a wholly owned palladium-platinum-copper deposit located 60 kilometres east-northeast (100 road km) of Sudbury, Ont. This new PEA was developed by a group of independent consultants, namely P&E Mining Consultants Inc. (mining, scheduling, project economics); DENM Engineering Ltd. (mineral processing and metallurgy); Knight Piesold Ltd. (tailings facility, water management and rock mechanics); and Story Environmental (environment and community). The mineral resource estimate upon which this new PEA is based was done by P&E in 2021.

PEA highlights:

• Pretax net present value (5 per cent): $289-million; after-tax: $135-million;
• Pretax internal rate of return: 16 per cent; after-tax: 11 per cent;
• Annual production: 2.5 million tonnes (Mt) of potential process plant feed at an average grade of 1.19 grams per tonne palladium equivalent and process recovery of 71.5 per cent, resulting in an average annual payable Pd production of 47,400 ounces;
• Total tonnes processed over life of mine: 38.6 Mt/16 years;
• Preproduction capital requirement: $268.7-million;
• Average unit operating cost: $30.98/t;
• Assumed metal prices: $2,150 (U.S.)/oz Pd, $1,050 (U.S.)/oz platinum, $1,830 (U.S.)/oz gold, $4 (U.S.)/pound copper;
• River Valley process feed: Treated in an on-site conventional sulphide flotation plant to produce a saleable platinum group metal-enriched Cu concentrate to be transported off site for smelting and refining;
• Project enhancement opportunities: Increased metal recoveries and expanded mineral resources.

Harry Barr, New Age Metals chairman and chief executive officer, stated: "The PEA results released today are positive with a posttax NPV (5 per cent) of $134-million, an IRR of 11 per cent, and 16 years of palladium, platinum and copper production. Compared to the 2019 PEA, this 2023 PEA envisions a smaller, higher-grade operation with lower capex, expanded underground mining and reduced open-pit mining, and a much-smaller environmental footprint. These encouraging results are based on the 2021 mineral resource estimate, which was produced in accordance with current CIM standards and guidelines, to provide feed to an on-site 2.5-million-tonne-per-annum process plant. The next steps include targeting areas for drilling to convert inferred to indicated mineral resources, expanding current mineral resources, the discovery of new mineralized zones, and to testing of promising new technologies for improved metal recoveries, all for incorporation into future, more advanced economic studies."

PEA summary*

*This PEA was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. It was prepared by P&E Mining Consultants with DENM Engineering, Knight Piesold and Story Environmental. Readers are cautioned that the PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be classified as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic variability. The company plans to file the PEA technical report on SEDAR within 45 days of the date of this press release.

Opportunities to enhance project value

Two major opportunities to enhance project value are: 1) improved metal recovery; and 2) increased mineral resources.

1) Improved metal recoveries

Hydrometallurgical options

The main focus of this PEA from a processing standpoint is conventional milling and flotation with upgrading of the resultant copper concentrate to a marketable product. The final concentrate (copper and PGMs) would be shipped to specific smelters to treat the River Valley product as a part of the revenue stream.

As an alternative to shipping to smelters, pressure leaching and metal precipitation options to recover platinum group metals (PGMs), gold and base metals will be investigated. Several PGM deposits worldwide are currently being subject to hydrometallurgical testing as a potentially economic alternative to base metal smelters.

Alternative flotation applications

Conventional flotation of the River Valley material has thus far been unable to produce a high-grade marketable smelter concentrate for maximum net smelter returns.

The expected concentrate grades based on the recent testing at SGS Lakefield were detailed in New Age Metals' press release dated Aug. 9, 2022.

Preliminary scoping work has been completed on the River Valley material utilizing two flotation alternatives to produce a higher-grade rougher concentrate and also possible increases in PGM recoveries. The two technologies being investigated are the Woodgrove flotation and the Glencore (Jameson) cell techniques.

Rhodium recovery and marketability

Additional work in this area would be beneficial for the project, due to the high metal price of rhodium. The test work recently complete showed the ability to recover rhodium in the final concentrate, albeit not at a saleable threshold grade for the smelters. Review of the rhodium mineralogy and process alternatives is recommended.

2) Increased mineral resources

Major infill, expansion and exploration drill programs are planned to: 1) convert inferred to indicated mineral resources at the Lismer and Varley zones; 2) expand current mineral resources at depth and along strike at the Dana South, Banshee, Lismer Ridge, Varley and Azen zones; and 3) test targets and delineate mineralized zones that show potential for inclusion in future mineral resource modelling, particularly in the footwall to the River Valley intrusion, as guided by geophysical survey and 3-D geological modelling results.

The drilling programs are slated to commenced in H2 2023, subject to financing.

PEA details

Mineral resources

The details of the 2021 updated mineral resource estimate were announced in a company press release dated Oct. 5, 2021. The effective date of the updated mineral resource estimate is Sept. 14, 2021. At cut-offs of $15/t net smelter return (pit constrained) and $50/t NSR (out-of-pit), the mineral resource estimate consists of: 89.9 Mt grading 0.54 g/t Pd, 0.21 g/t Pt, 0.04 g/t Au and 0.06 per cent Cu, or $47.58/t NSR in the measured and indicated classifications; and 94 Mt grading 0.35 g/t Pd, 0.16 g/t Pt, 0.04 g/t Au and 0.06 per cent Cu, or $31.69/t NSR in the inferred classification. Contained metal contents are 2.3 Moz Pd plus Pt plus Au in the measured and indicated classifications and 1.6 Moz Pd plus Pt plus Au in the inferred classification.

The predominant contribution of Pd plus Pt to the NSR value (86 per cent) is particularly noteworthy, given the rarity of such primary platinum group metal deposits in secure and established global mining jurisdictions.

The mineral resource estimate is sensitive to the selection of reporting NSR cut-off values for pit-constrained mineral resources.

Mining: open pit and underground

The River Valley project is planned to be mined by both open-pit and underground methods. Initial mining would be by open pit at the northwest end of the deposit, close to the proposed process plant site.

A series of five open pits would be mined, starting at the Dana North zone and progressing in a southeasterly direction to the Varley zone. The Dana North pit contains approximately half of the mineralized process plant feed. Higher-grade underground mineralization is planned to be mined during production years 2 to 7, and will total approximately three Mt of process plant feed. The underground mining method is planned to be sublevel longhole stoping with cemented rock backfill.

The average open-pit strip ratio is envisaged to be 3.4:1 over the life of mine. It is anticipated that a fleet of 90-tonne haul trucks, 10-cubic-metre excavators and 254-millimetre-diameter-hole rotary drills will be utilized, following industry-standard conventional open-pit mining techniques.

Mineral processing

The new PEA annual process feed rate to the River Valley process plant will be 2.5 million tonnes per year (6,850 million tonnes per day) of mineralized material. The process plant remains as previously designed to produce a single copper sulphide and PGM concentrate. The dewatered and dried concentrate would be hauled off site for smelting.

Simplified process plant details are as follows:

1. Run of mine (ROM) to be crushed in a single primary jaw crusher to 150 mm sizing (380 million tonnes per hour (mtph));
2. SAG (semi-autogenous grinding) mill in closed circuit with a recycle pebble crusher and ball mill to produce flotation feed (310 mtph);
3. Rougher flotation, regrinding of the associated concentrate, three-stage cleaning circuit to produce the final concentrate;
4. Concentrate dewatering, filtering, drying for shipping to the smelter;
5. Tailings thickening prior to pumping to the tailings management facility (TMF);
6. Standard process water recovery would be from the associated thickeners and return water from the TMF area. Makeup water for the process would be from one the lakes on the property;
7. Power for the facility will be provided by a dedicated 44-kilovolt feeder line from Crystal Falls transformer station.

Initial discussions with Hydro One (suppler and builder) have been completed regarding options, capital and dollar/kilowatt-hour estimates.

Tailings and water management tailings management

The tailings management facility (TMF) would consist of a two-cell valley impoundment to provide safe and permanent storage for tailings for the first seven years of the mine life. The remaining tailings would be stored in the Dana open pit when it has been mined out. The TMF impoundment would be developed by constructing three embankments (North, Divider and South Embankments) using the downstream construction method. The embankments will be constructed in stages to suit the tailings storage requirement throughout the first seven years of the mine life.

Thickened tailings slurry would be delivered to the TMF at a solids content of approximately 55 per cent by mass. The tailings are expected to be non-acid generating. Inert waste rock and processed waste rock from open-pit mine development would be used to construct the TMF embankment. The upstream face of the embankment would be lined with a 100 mil HDPE geomembrane overlying non-woven geotextile.

The geomembrane will be tied into bedrock along the upstream toe by a concrete plinth.

Water management

Site contact water would be managed within sediment basins, the water management pond (WMP), open pits and the TMF. The sediment basins would collect runoff from the site infrastructure areas for sediment control prior to routing the collected water to the WMP immediately north of the TMF. The WMP would be used to temporarily store supernatant water from the TMF, contact water from site infrastructure, and inflows into the open pits and underground workings. The WMP would provide reclaim water to the processing plant. Excess water would be pumped to the water treatment plant and subsequently discharged to the environment.

The primary water management objectives include:

• Provide temporary containment of the environmental design flood (EDF) within the TMF basin during operations;
• Provide temporary storage and conveyance of the inflow design flood (IDF) through spillways from the TMF and WMP;
• Maintain a small supernatant pond within the TMF basin by transferring runoff and supernatant to the WMP on a continuing basis by pump barge and pipeline;
• Collect and manage contact water through surface water management measures;
• Maximize reclamation of contact water from the WMP to the process plant. This approach will minimize freshwater requirements and water discharge volumes;
• Treat and discharge excess supernatant water, mine water (pit and underground inflow) and contact water to the environment, as required during the mine life, through the waste water treatment and discharge systems.

Environment, community, ESG

Since the 2019 PEA, New Age Metals has worked to reduce the proposed environmental footprint of the Rive Valley project. The new 2023 PEA concept replaces open-pit mining adjacent to Pine Lake with underground mining and significantly reduces the size of the project's remaining open-pit mines. Therefore, the project no longer requires the construction of dams within Pine Lake and eliminates the associated impact on fish and fish habitat. By extracting higher-grade material from underground, New Age Metals would also reduce the rate of mining and processing for the project. This modification would reduce the footprint of the process plant and waste rock areas, and reduce the size of the processing equipment, which in turn would reduce the carbon footprint of the project.

The River Valley project is situated on the traditional territory of Temagami First Nation and Nipissing First Nation. A memorandum of understanding was signed by Temagami First Nation in 2014 and amended in 2017. Temagami First Nation has assisted with the completion of baseline archeological, surface water quality, groundwater and hydrology studies and members of the community also participated in a site visit in September, 2022. A memorandum of understanding was signed with Nipissing First Nation in late January, 2022. In 2023, New Age Metals anticipates that Nipissing First Nation will also participate in the project's continuing baseline environmental data collection. Regular project updates are provided to each of these communities.

The project will be required to obtain numerous provincial and federal approvals and permits.

It is anticipated that the project will be subject to both provincial environmental assessments and a federal impact assessment. The project will proceed with a co-ordinated process to increase efficiencies and reduce duplication of effort during these assessments. However, the permitting for the project will be less onerous now, than that for the much larger project presented in the 2019 PEA.

New Age Metals has developed an environmental and social governance (ESG) strategy and will prepare an ESG sustainability report annually to disclose and communicate ESG-related information to New Age Metals' stakeholders. The first ESG sustainability report is posted on New Age Metals' website. As outlined in its ESG strategy, New Age Metals is committed to managing and operating its assets in a manner that is protective of human health and safety and the environment. It is New Age Metals' policy to comply, in all material respects, with applicable health, safety and environmental laws and regulations.

Project economics and sensitivities

The economic results of the PEA are summarized herein on an after-tax basis. The sensitivities and the impact of cash flows have been calculated for plus or minus 20-per-cent variations against the base case.

The project is sensitive to Pd recovery. A 20-per-cent increase in Pd recovery, possibly resulting from hydrometallurgical treatment, results in an increased after-tax (5-per-cent discount rate) NPV of $250-million and an after-tax IRR of 16 per cent.

About the River Valley project

The River Valley palladium project is located 100 road km east from the city of Sudbury.

The project area is linked to Sudbury by a network of all-weather highways, roads and rail beds and is accessible year-round with hydro grid and natural gas power nearby. River Valley enjoys the strong support of local communities, like the village of River Valley, 20 km to the south. Fully executed memorandums of understanding are in place with two local first nation groups. Environmental baseline studies recommenced in 2020 are planned to continue through 2023.

About New Age Metals Inc.

New Age Metals is a junior mineral exploration and development company focused on the discovery, exploration and development of green metal projects in North America. The company has two divisions: a platinum group element division and a lithium/rare element division.

The PGE division includes the 100-per-cent-owned, multimillion-ounce, district-scale River Valley project, one of North America's largest undeveloped platinum group element projects, situated 100 km by road east of Sudbury, Ont. In addition to River Valley, New Age Metals owns 100 per cent of the Genesis PGE-copper-nickel project in Alaska, and plans to complete a surface mapping and sampling program in 2022.

The company's lithium division is one of the largest mineral claim holders in the Winnipeg River pegmatite field, where the company is exploring for hard-rock lithium and various rare elements, such as tantalum, rubidium and cesium. The company has announced its preliminary $2-million 2023/2024 exploration budget that will cover the first four months of the program. A larger budget has been submitted to its partner Mineral Resources Ltd. and New Age Metals expects it to be approved this summer. Further exploration plans for 2023 include geophysical surveying, summer fieldwork (which will include mapping, lithogeochemistry, MMI soil geochemistry, biogeochemistry, channel sampling) and permits/archeological surveys. The company has a partnership with Mineral Resources, a top global lithium producer, to explore and develop the company's lithium project portfolio in Southern Manitoba. The company's philosophy is to be a project generator with the objective of optioning its projects with major and junior mining companies through to production.

The company is actively seeking an option/joint venture partner for its newly acquired Northman, McLaughlin Lake and South Bay lithium projects in Northern Manitoba, and its road-accessible Genesis PGE-Cu-Ni project in Alaska.

Qualified person

This PEA was prepared under the supervision of Eugene Puritch, PEng, FEC, CET, of P&E Mining Consultants. The metallurgical test work, process plant design and cost estimates were prepared by David Salari, PEng, of DENM Engineering. The tailings facility and water management were prepared by Jessica Breault, PEng, and the rock mechanics design input was prepared by were prepared by Ben Peacock, PEng, of Knight Piesold. The environmental, community and ESG write-up was prepared by Maria Story, PEng, of Story Environmental. Mr. Puritch reviewed and approved the technical information in this press release. William Stone, PGeo, lead geoscience consultant for New Age Metals, is the company's qualified person as defined by NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical content of this press release.

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