Mr. Eric Allard reports

TANTALEX LITHIUM ANNOUNCES IMPRESSIVE MANONO LITHIUM TAILINGS PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT WITH IRR OF 87,4 per cent AND NPV10 OF US$764 MILLION

Tantalex Lithium Resources Corp. has released results from its preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its majority-owned Manono lithium tailings project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Key PEA highlights:

• Excellent project economics and financial returns:
  • Robust pretax NPV (net present value) (discounted at 10 per cent) of approximately $764-million (U.S.) and 87.4-per-cent IRR (internal rate of return) on a nominal basis, and a pretax NPV10 of approximately $638-million (U.S.) and 82.3-per-cent IRR on a real basis;
  • Rapid payback of year after first production using a life-of-mine spodumene concentrate price of $2,800 (U.S.) per tonne SC5.5 (free on board; Africa) as forecast by Fastmarkets, an internationally recognized price reporting agency;
  • Project capital cost estimate (capex) of $147.7-million (U.S.), including contingencies;
  • Life-of-mine (LOM) of six years with an estimated annual production of 112,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate;
• Low-risk plant operation and tailings reclamation:
  • Ready-to-use tailings dump resources to feed beneficiation plant with minimum cost of mining, crushing, grinding and processing;
  • Process plant nameplate capacity is 1.26 million tonnes per year of run-of-mine (ROM) ore based on robust flow sheet using learnings from other lithium producers;
  • A number of opportunities have been identified to improve capital and operating costs and plant capacity; the exploration program is being finalized with a focus on increasing indicated resources and extending life of project.

The PEA was prepared by Sedgman Novopro of Montreal, Canada, with mineral resource and mining contributions from MSA Group in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

An NI 43-101 technical report will be prepared and posted on Tantalex's website and the company's profile on SEDAR+ within 45 days of the date of this news release. The key financial metrics are compelling, and the company's board has recommended the project to proceed to a feasibility study.

Eric Allard, president and chief executive officer, commented: "This PEA is perfectly aligned with the results of our maiden resource report filed in January, 2023. It was our decision to focus our efforts on completing this PEA as a priority, which now allows us to progress on our feasibility and ESIA [environmental and social impact assessment] studies. We have sized the project scope in order to use existing infrastructures, but, as the Manono region develops into an important lithium mining region, we are confident that energy and logistics costs will significantly reduce.

"Additionally, we will pursue with our resource definition works to increase the life of mine on both the tailings property and our highly prospective hard-rock lithium pegmatite corridor."

Executive summary

Key metrics are shown in an attached table for the Manono PEA and assume a weighted average lithium concentrate price of $2,800 (U.S.) per tonne FOB Africa, based on Fastmarkets average forecast price from 2025 to 2026 and adjusted for a 5.5 per cent Li2O (lithium oxide) spodumene concentrate (SC 5.5) product. Lithium price forecast is discussed in more detail herein.

The PEA has been completed with the assistance of highly experienced and reputable independent consultants, including:

• Mineral resource modelling and estimation -- MSA Group;
• Flow sheet development, engineering and cost estimation -- Sedgman Novopro.

The PEA was completed to an overall estimating accuracy of plus or minus 35 per cent (Class 5 estimate) and has a base date of Q4 2023. The project is based on a 112,167-tonne-per-annum spodumene mining and processing operation, with the study demonstrating very strong financial metrics. The preliminary economic evaluation indicates the Manono lithium tailings project will generate significant net cash flows over an initial six-year life of mine (LOM) with a capital payback of one year following first production.

Sensitivity analysis was completed to determine the impact of various factors on the project economics. Lithium price has the largest influence on the project financials. For every 10-per-cent increase in the lithium concentrate price, the project NPV 10 (net present value, discounted at 10 per cent) increases by $133-million (U.S.). The project demonstrates it is resilient to capital escalation with a 10-per-cent increase in the total project capital cost, reducing the NPV 10 by only $14-million.

Next steps

The results of the PEA study demonstrate that the Manono lithium tailings project has the potential to be technically and economically viable as a producer of lithium spodumene concentrate. This section lists recommendations for updating the resource, optimizing the process flow sheet and completing a feasibility study (FS).

Mineral resource

A strategy to drill the sloped area of the stacked tailings of the K deposit is currently being investigated, with the aim of providing sufficient data for higher confidence estimates for this material. This would allow to transfer these currently classified inferred resources into the measured and indicated category.

Recovery methods

Additional metallurgical testing will be performed during the FS as the bulk samples tested to date are not considered fully representative when compared with the core reject samples presented in the MRE. New samples for the K, G and I dumps, based on the existing drill hole reject grade and granulometry, have been prepared and sent to laboratory for future metallurgical testing during the FS.

There are several opportunities to optimize the process flow sheet by conducting additional testing of the representative samples. The testing will include as a minimum the following:

• Confirm DMS (dense media separation) parameters on the representative samples;
• Confirm flotation parameters on the representative samples;
• Gravity separation for tin and tantalum concentrate recovery;
• Gravity separation of slimes (minus 106 micrometres) to recover spodumene, tin and/or tantalum;
• A technology trade-off for mica removal.

Significant opportunities exist to increase the project robustness and financial metrics, notably:

• Energy to be taken from the nearby Piana Mwanga hydroelectric dam currently being refurbished;
• Recovery of tin and tantalum contained in the tailings.

The feasibility study execution is estimated at $4-million and involves additional exploration drilling, mineral processing test work, geotechnical investigation, completion of the ESIA program, engineering and cost estimation producing an AACE Class 3 estimate. Predicated on a potentially positive FS outcome, an investment decision to develop the Manono lithium tailings project is expected to occur in calendar year 2024.

Technical summary -- Manono lithium tailings PEA

Introduction

Tantalex Lithium Resources is a Canadian exploration company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the U.S. OTCQB Venture Market. Tantalex Lithium Resources owns 52 per cent of the Manono lithium-tin-tantalum tailings deposit, located 490 kilometres north of Lubumbashi in the Tanganyika province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Manono lithium tailings are located within the tailings exploitation permit PER 13698, which is located adjacent to the town of Manono. It consists of 11 tailings dumps spanning a length of 12 kilometres from the southwest toward the northeast. The licence is held by Minocom Mining SAS, of which Tantalex holds 52 per cent, 18 per cent is held by Minor SARL and the remaining 30 per cent by state-owned company Cominiere SA.

The Manono lithium tailings project has a mineral resource estimate of 3.77 million tonnes at 0.86 per cent Li2O in the measured classification and 1.69 million tonnes at 0.42 per cent Li2O in the indicated category, and 6.63 million tonnes of inferred mineral resources at a grade of 0.49 per cent Li2O.

The PEA has assumed a processing plant capable of treating 1.6 million tonnes per annum of ROM ore. Sedgman Novopro (SN) was engaged to complete sufficient engineering to generate a capital and operating estimate with an accuracy of plus or minus 35 per cent (Class 5). The MSA Group Pty. Ltd. completed the relevant mineral resource estimate components of the PEA, which are discussed further within this announcement. All costs and financials are presented in U.S. dollars unless stated otherwise.

Mineral resource

Geology

The Manono lithium tailings are technogenic deposits, created from the processing of material from the Manono-Kitolo deposit, which was mined from 1919 to the mid-1980s for tin and columbite-tantalite (coltan). Nine out of the 11 tailings were drilled, of which five form this mineral resource estimate. The tailings deposits stretch over a length of 12 kilometres, in a northeast-southwest direction, immediately adjacent to the mined pits. Several of the deposits consist of a mixture of material types, typically pegmatite and laterite, with some clay material being present in minor quantities in specific deposits.

The deposits are named alphabetically, with a suffix used to differentiate between coarse (c) and fine (f) material. The nine tailings that make up the project are from north to south named Cc, Cf, Ec, Hc, Hf, Gc, Gf, Ic and K.

The lithium mineralization is primarily hosted in spodumene with minor lepidolite. Tin mineralization is hosted in cassiterite and tantalum in tantalite.

The nine tailings deposits have been evaluated by air-core drilling, completed from September, 2021, to July, 2022. A total of 368 drill holes, amounting to 11,922.4 metres of drilling, have been completed, which took place over two phases.

Drilling was orientated vertically, with the densest drilling found on the K deposit, where holes were spaced 40 metres apart. The Gf and Hf deposits were drilled at a spacing of 80 metres. The remaining deposits were drilled on an irregular spacing ranging from 20 metres to 80 metres. Most of the drilling has intercepted the contact representing the predepositional surface.

Mineral resource

The mineral resource was estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Best Practice Guidelines (2019) and is reported in accordance with the 2014 CIM definition standards, which have been incorporated by reference into National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

The mineral resources were classified into the measured, indicated and inferred categories for each deposit and reported at a cut-off grade of 0.20 per cent Li2O (see attached table). The cut-off grade was calculated based on a mining cost of $2.17 (U.S.) per tonne, a processing cost of $11.18 (U.S.) tonne, transport cost of $361 (U.S.) per tonne, G&A (general and administrative) costs of $76.5 (U.S.) per tonne, marketing costs of $178.4 (U.S.) per tonne, mining recovery of 99 per cent, process recovery of 63 per cent, and a lithium price of $2,800 (U.S.) per tonne for spodumene concentrate (SC6), which the qualified person considers will satisfy reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. No mineral resources for the Ec, Hc and Hf deposits were declared.

The mineral resources presented in this technical report represent an update to the mineral resource estimate with an effective date Aug. 23, 2023, and now include tin and tantalum.

Additional drilling is recommended for several deposits in order to improve the confidence in the mineral resource estimates.

Mining

The tailings dumps will be reclaimed by an excavator at each of the K, I and G dumps and loaded onto dump trucks for transport onto an overland conveyor that will feed a stockpile at the process plant.

A series of three, 900-millimetre-wide belt overland conveyors will transport a total of 240 tonnes per hours to the process plant stockpile approximately 3,300 metres from the reclaimed dump blending pad. The first two segments of the conveyors will be enclosed by guarding and be elevated approximately 1.5 metres off the ground on concrete pedestals, elevating higher at the location of the two transfer towers. The final, 295-metre conveyor section will be elevated on trestles at approximately six metres high and to allow for safe crossing over a major road and population centre.

Measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources were included in tailings dumps reclaiming schedule as potential mineral inventory, and, while the indicated resources were primarily targeted to show where additional resource drilling should be targeted, the inclusion of inferred resources and the nature of a PEA have removed the possibility of the declaration of an ore reserve.

The tailings dumps reclaiming schedule indicates approximately 55 per cent of the LOM production is in the measured and indicated mineral resource category and 45 per cent is in the inferred mineral resource category.

The company has concluded it has reasonable grounds for disclosing a production target, given that the PEA only focused on the mining of a high-grade part of the mineral resource estimate (dumps I, G and K). So, the PEA only covers 7.58 million tonnes of the estimate at 1.26 million tonnes of ROM ore to the mill each year.

The mining rate required to ensure continuous mill feed and the production targets are determined by the production schedule; however, the rate needs to be cognizant of mining fleet size, equipment productivities and shift arrangements.

Processing

Material from the tailings dumps will be processed into a 5.5 weight per cent Li2O concentrate using a robust process flow sheet consisting of crushing, dense media separation and flotation, dewatering, and bagging.

The Manono tailings dumps has two broad ore types that will be presented to the process plant:

• Coarse-grained spodumene;
• Fine-grained spodumene.

The process flow sheet is based on a typical hard-rock spodumene resource, which is amenable to both dense media separation (DMS) and froth flotation to achieve a target concentrate grade of 5.5 per cent Li2O, and incorporates the current understanding of resource size, grade, mineralogy and crystal grain size, as well as information from heavy liquid separation (HLS) test work undertaken to date.

Stockpiled material in proximity to the processing facility is reclaimed by front-end loader onto a belt conveyor that feeds a vibrating screen with a five-millimetre deck. Oversize material falls into a double-roll crusher and is returned to the belt conveyor. Screen undersize material is transported onto a wet vibrating screen with a 500-micrometre deck. Wet screen oversize is transferred into the DMS plant feed tank while the wet screen undersize falls into a pump box for feeding into the wet grinding and flotation plant.

A two-stage DMS plant is used to produce 5.5 weight per cent Li2O concentrate, where the primary DMS floats (tailings) are transported by a series of movable conveyors to the TSF. Secondary DMS floats (middlings) are pumped to wet grinding and the flotation plant, followed by dewatering by a centrifuge and are then sent to the bagging plant. Secondary DMS sinks are dewatered by a centrifuge and then sent to the bagging plant.

The Manono process flow sheet uses conventional processing technologies; however, it is a fourth-generation spodumene concentrator adopting learnings and optimizations from existing spodumene operations to ensure high efficiency through every process unit operation. These optimizations include:

• Maximize mineral liberation for effective coarse and fine spodumene recovery;
• Minimize slime losses;
• Effective rejection of gangue minerals, including mica and iron silicates;
• Efficient milling, desliming and float conditioning to maximize recovery of fines;
• Maximize plant availability by employing high-wear-resistant materials of construction and duty/standby equipment where necessary.

Crushing and screening

The 15,000-tonne process plant stockpile will be reclaimed by a front-end loader and fed onto a belt conveyor that will transport the material onto the vibrating, crusher sizing screen. The five-millimetre screen deck will divert oversized material into a double-roll crusher, which will return the material onto the crusher feed conveyor. Spray water will be used on this screen deck to push finer material to the undersize. Screen undersize will flow onto a vibrating wet sizing screen with a 500-micrometre deck. The wet sizing screen will divert the oversize material into the DMS plant feed tank and the undersize into the wet grinding plant feed pump box.

DMS plant

The wet screen oversize material will be combined with ferrosilicon (FeSi) media to increase the specific gravity of the slurry to 2.65 tonnes per cubic metre before entering the primary DMS cyclones. The primary DMS cyclone overflow (floats) will be dewatered through a screen to 15-per-cent moisture and transported by a series of grasshopper conveyors to the tailings storage facility (TSF). Primary cyclone underflow (sinks) will be combined with additional FeSi to increase the specific gravity to 2.85 tonnes per cubic metre before entering the secondary DMS cyclones. Overflow from the secondary cyclone (middlings) will be pumped to the wet grinding plant. Secondary cyclones underflow is transferred to a dewatering centrifuge. FeSi media is recovered from primary and secondary DMS cyclones through drain and rinse screens and magnetic separators.

Wet grinding

Wet screen undersize and DMS middlings are pumped to a ball mill for wet grinding. The product slurry is pumped to a hydrocyclone with a cut point of 300 micrometres. Cyclone overflow (minus 300 micrometres) is fed to the flotation plant and the underflow (plus 300 micrometres) is recycled back to the ball mill.

Flotation plant

The ball mill cyclone overflow is pumped to a high-intensity scrubber followed by a desliming cyclone and a magnetic separator. The iron-deficient slurry is then pumped into two stages of mica reverse flotation cells. The floated mica is pumped to the tailings thickener, with the remaining slurry being pumped into a dewatering cyclone.

The mica-deficient, dewatered slurry passes through a high-density scrubber and a desliming cyclone before being pumped into four stages of lithium spodumene flotation cells. Tailings from the rougher and scavenger cells are pumped to the tailings thickener while the concentrate is pumped to the cleaner cells. Concentrate from the first cleaner stage is pumped into the second cleaner stage to produce a final product concentrate that is pumped to the dewatering centrifuge. Tailings from the cleaner cells are pumped to the tailings thickener.

Product dewatering and bagging

Spodumene concentrate from the DMS and flotation plants is pumped into dedicated screen bowl centrifuges for final dewatering, targeting 5-per-cent moisture. The dewatered concentrate is transferred into dedicated storage bins to feed the product bagging plants. Each concentrate type will have a dedicated bagging plant that will include automatically filling one-tonne bulk bags, bag labelling and transporting the filled bags on an accumulating conveyor for forklift handling. The one-tonne bulk bags will be removed from the accumulating conveyors by forklifts for storage on wooden pallets in a covered area at the process plant. Forklifts will manoeuvre the palletized bags onto transport trucks that will deliver the bags to a warehouse location in Lubumbashi. From Lubumbashi, the palletized bags will be loaded onto 26-tonne-capacity trucks for transport to the port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Tailings dewatering

A single high-rate thickener will collect various tailings streams generated throughout the process plant. These streams consist of effluent from the DMS plant, fines in the desliming cyclone overflow, overflow from the dewatering cyclones, magnetic separation tailings, mica reserve flotation concentrate and spodumene flotation tailings.

The solids present in the feed streams will settle to the bottom of the thickener and water is recovered through the overflow weir. The recovered water is pumped to the process water pond. The underflow slurry will be pumped to the TSF at 55-per-cent moisture.

Reagents

The DMS plant will use ferrosilicon (FeSi) as the densifying agent. The FeSi will be stored in waterproof steel drums under a roof at the process plant.

The flotation plant will require several reagent types that will be stored in plastic totes under a roof at the process plant. The reagents will include a frother, amine collectors and sodium-based compounds as regulators. A flocculant will be added to the tailings thickener to assist in solids settling. The flocculant will be stored in plastic totes under a roof at the process plant, near the thickener.

Infrastructure

All associated infrastructure required to support the Manono operation is included in the PEA. Capital provisions were included for the following items: power generation, site roads, accommodation and mess facilities, water supply, waste water treatment, administration buildings, telecommunications, security, warehouse, maintenance and tailings storage facility, bulk fuel farm, laboratory, and emergency response facilities.

Energy consumption is estimated at four megawatts and has been costed using diesel generators. Significant improvement can be made by incorporating the options for energy supply from Piana Mwanga hydroelectric dam located 70 kilometres from Manono and currently being refurbished.

Export route

The export route considered in the PEA for bringing material to site and export of product is the N33 between Manono to Lubumbashi, a distance of approximately 600 kilometres.

Estimate has been made with current road conditions, which allow six-by-six trucks carrying 20 tonnes.

An allowance of $10-million (U.S.) has been allocated in the capex (capital expenditures) for improving certain sections of the road prior to start-up of the operations.

Tailings management

Primary DMS tailings pass a dewatering screen to achieve 13-per-cent moisture and are directed to a series of conveyors running from the process plant to dry stacking at the tailing storage facility (TSF). The system consists of mobile grasshopper conveyors, which direct the solids to an end section that distributes the solids in an arc through a stacker conveyor.

Tailings from the flotation thickener underflow at 55-per-cent moisture are pumped through an above-ground pipeline to a spigot system along the western side of the TSF.

The TSF is sized to store a total of 10 million tonnes of tailings over the six-year plant life. The TSF is located southeast of the process plant, sloping eastward at an average grade of 3.8 per cent. The natural slope will ensure that the final tailings pile does not exceed a height of 24 metres. The entire 494,000-square-metre area will be lined with EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer).

Environmental studies, permitting and social or community impact

Collection of baseline data for the Manono lithium tailings project has been continuing since October, 2022, by a local DRC contractor.

The baseline studies were designed and implemented to support requirements for future planning and permitting purposes. The baseline studies will be peer reviewed by an independent consultant to ensure all activities are compliant with international lending standards. An active program has already been taken for communicating and consulting with the local communities.

Capital expenditures

The estimate meets the minimum requirements of a Class V estimate as defined in AACE International Recommended Practice No. 18R-97. The capex estimate has an intended accuracy of plus or minus 35 per cent. The total direct capex to bring the project to operation is estimated to be $80,611,000, with a total of $34,157,000 allocated for the indirect costs.

An additional $10-million allowance is allocated for the road's rehabilitation.

An estimated budget of $22,954,000 is allocated to contingency, which brings the total capex of the project to $147,722,000.

The capital estimate has been developed using preliminary MTOs (material takeoffs) and unit pricing obtained from either contractor-supplied or vendor-supplied quotations. Approximately 70 per cent of total equipment supply value for the Manono lithium project was based on budget quotes for the project. Ninety per cent of the total mobile equipment costs are based on budget quotes received during this phase of the project. Concrete, structural, piping, electrical and instrumentation are all factored amounts based on the mechanical equipment costs. Civil works and architectural are based on MTOs and using in-house unit rates extracted from similar projects. Factored amounts have been calculated from the direct installed capital cost for construction indirects, freight, commissioning, first fill, vendor representative, construction management (EPCM) components and owner cost.

Contingency is intended to cover items that are included in the scope of work as described in this report but cannot be accurately defined due to the normal range of variability of quantities, productivity, unit rates, the current level of engineering and other factors that affect the accuracy of the expected final cost of the project. The total for contingency calculated 20 per cent of the total (direct plus indirect) costs.

An attached table presents the project capex summary.

Operational expenditures (opex)

The estimate meets the minimum requirements of a Class V estimate as defined in AACE International Recommended Practice No. 18R-97. The opex estimate has an intended accuracy of plus or minus 35 per cent. The total estimated opex is $44.9-million per year, or $402 per tonne lithium spodumene produced (dry basis). Of this cost, $36.4-million per year, or $325.50 per tonne, are direct production costs (81 per cent) and $8.5-million per year, or $76.50 per tonne, are indirect production costs (19 per cent).

The project opex was based on process flow diagrams and mass balances, load lists and layouts. Other supporting data include vendor pricing and specifications and historical data from previous projects. The full-rate operating hours for the process plant used in the opex estimate was 7,600 hours per year. Annual spodumene production was 112,167 tonnes per year on a dry basis and 118,071 tonnes per year on a wet basis. No contingency has been considered for the opex for the project.

The opex summary excludes the following, which are only captured in the cash flow:

1. Product transport (included only in cash flow);
2. Marketing (included only in cash flow);
3. Royalties (included only in cash flow).

An attached table presents a summary of the annual operational expenditures (opex) for the project.

Product transport

The product transport cost is based on a quote received from a local transport agency (C. Steinweg Bridge). The cost is $361 per tonne and includes the manpower, the maintenance, the diesel and the tire replacements to bring the material to an African port. Several segments of the journey from Manono to Dar es Salaam were provided, as seen in an attached table.

Financial analysis

An engineering economic model was prepared for the project to estimate annual cash flows and assess sensitivities to certain economic parameters. The project shows a pretax cumulative net revenue of $1,274-million, a pretax NPV (10-per-cent discount) of $764-million, with an IRR (internal rate of return) of 87.4 per cent on a nominal basis. The project shows a pretax NPV (10-per-cent discount) of $638-million, with an IRR of 82.3 per cent on a real basis.

The cash flow estimate includes only revenue, capex and opex. Product transport, marketing and royalties were all included as additional costs within the cash flow model. Corporate obligations, financing costs and taxes at the corporate level are excluded.

The implementation schedule currently estimates the construction timeline to be from March, 2024, to October, 2025, across 20 months. Each year contains 10 months of construction; thus, the capex is spent by 50 per cent across 2024 and 50 per cent across 2025.

Key metrics are shown in an attached table for the Manono PEA assumes a weighted average lithium concentrate price of $2,800 (U.S.) per tonne FOB Africa, based on Fastmarkets average forecast price from 2025 to 2026 and adjusted for a 5.5-per-cent Li2O spodumene concentrate (SC 5.5) product.

A sensitivity analysis was completed to determine the impact of various factors on the project economics. Lithium price has the largest influence on the project financials. For every 10-per-cent increase in the lithium concentrate price, the project NPV 10 increased by $133-million. The project demonstrates it is resilient to capital escalation with a 10-per-cent increase in the total project capital cost, only reducing the NPV 10 by $14-million.

Project development

The PEA has demonstrated that the Manono lithium tailings project has no critical technical flaws and the FS is anticipated to commence in October, 2023. Predicated on a potentially positive FS outcome, an investment decision to develop the Manono lithium tailings project is expected to occur in calendar year 2024. Results from the FS will be incorporated during front-end engineering and design (FEED), which is scheduled to commence immediately after FS completion.

Metallurgical test work is planned in the course of the FS. This work will include grinding, DMS, flotation and dewatering tests, which will increase the definition of the process flow sheet. This workstream will allow flow sheet optimization and vendor testing of preferred equipment for the process plant.

Environmental approvals and permitting for the project are on the critical path.

Filing of report

The NI 43-101 compliant technical report will be filed on SEDAR within the next 45 days.

The qualified person for the mineral resource estimate is Rui Goncalves, BSc (honours), MSc (engineering), who is a geologist with 13 years of experience in base metal and precious metal exploration, mining geology and mineral resource estimation. He is a senior mineral resource consultant for MSA Group (an independent consulting company), is registered with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and is a member of the Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA). Mr. Goncalves has the appropriate qualification and experience to be considered a qualified person for the style and type of mineralization and activity being undertaken as defined in NI 43-101.

Neither Mr. Goncalves nor any associates employed in the preparation of the mineral resource report (consultants) have any beneficial interest in Tantalex Lithium Resources.

The qualified person for the above-ground infrastructure and support systems is Jim Brebner, PEng, who is a mechanical engineer with 35 years of experience executing industrial projects, economic and feasibility studies, process development, and due diligence reviews, and he has participated in multiple mining and processing projects in potash, lithium and light metals in Canada, the United States, Africa, South America and Australia. He is the engineering manager at Sedgman Novopro (an independent consulting company) and is registered with the Ordre des Ingenieurs du Quebec and the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador. Mr. Brebner has the appropriate qualifications and experience to be considered a qualified person for the style and type of processing plant and activity being undertaken as defined in NI 43-101.

Neither Mr. Brebner nor any associates employed in the preparation of the PEA report (consultants) have any beneficial interest in Tantalex Lithium Resources.

The qualified person for the mineral processing is Antoine Lefaivre, PEng, who is a process engineer with 15 years of experience executing industrial projects, economic and feasibility studies, process development, and due diligence reviews, and have participated in projects for potash, lithium and magnesium products, using both conventional and solution mining for ore recovery in Canada, United States, Africa, South America and Australia. He is lead process engineer in Sedgman Novopro (an independent consulting company) and is registered with Order of Engineers of Quebec. Mr. Lefaivre has the appropriate qualification and experience to be considered a qualified person for the style and type of processing plant and activity being undertaken as defined in NI 43-101.

Neither Mr. Lefaivre nor any associates employed in the preparation of the PEA report (consultants) have any beneficial interest in Tantalex Lithium Resources.

These consultants are not insiders, associates or affiliates of Tantalex. The results of the report are not dependent upon any prior agreements concerning the conclusions to be reached, nor are there undisclosed understandings concerning any future business dealing between Tantalex and the consultants. The consultants are to be paid a fee for their work in accordance with normal professional consulting practices.

Qualified person

Rui Goncalves, PrSciNat, is a qualified person and has reviewed and approved this press release. The information in this press release that relates to the estimate of the mineral resources for the Manono tailings project is based upon and fairly represents information and supporting documentation compiled by Mr. Goncalves.

Mr. Brebner is a qualified person and has reviewed and approved this press release. The information in this press release that relates to the Manono tailings project PEA report is based upon and fairly represents information and supporting documentation compiled by Mr. Brebner.

Mr. Lefaivre is a qualified person and has reviewed and approved this press release. The information in this press release that relates to the Manono tailings project PEA report is based upon and fairly represents information and supporting documentation compiled by Mr. Goncalves.

About Tantalex Lithium Resources Corp.

Tantalex Lithium is an exploration-and-development-stage mining company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and distribution of lithium, tin, tantalum and other high-tech mineral properties in Africa. It is currently focused on developing its lithium assets in the prolific Manono area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- the Manono lithium tailings project and the pegmatite corridor exploration program.

We seek Safe Harbor.