Mr. Gregg Smith reports
GROUNDED LITHIUM UPGRADES 1.0 MILLION TONNES OF LCE TO MEASURED & INDICATED
Grounded Lithium Corp. has received advanced recognition of 63 sections of the company's holdings from inferred mineral resources to measured mineral resource and indicated mineral resource (M&I). These category improvements represent approximately one million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) within its 4.2 million tonnes of reported inferred resource within the Kindersley lithium project (KLP) area. Grounded Lithium is the first company in the province of Saskatchewan to be recognized by an independent third party for measured mineral resource in a lithium from brine project.
The breakdown of the reclassification of the company's total resource base is detailed herein.
This current upgrade to M&I only involves 21 per cent of the total sections comprising the KLP, yet the independent technical report upgrades 24 per cent of the total inferred mineral resource, which speaks to the quality of the resource and the company's vision to accumulate focused landholdings. This upgrade further confirms the overall 4.2 million tonnes of LCE across the KLP. This change to resource categories requires higher confidence levels in the resource estimation process that can typically result in an overall reduction in total volumes. This outcome supports the company's confidence in its original analysis and mapping, together with the quality of the resource.
"From our inception, GLC's vision was to secure focused high-quality resource rights in areas which aligned with our extensive geological model, incorporating a low-cost structure to drive compelling economics," commented Gregg Smith, president and chief executive officer. "By moving only a minor portion of our overall resource base to the M&I categories, we have passed a key step in the overall commercialization of phase 1 of the KLP. Quality resource produces quality economics, which also supports our project's resilience to volatility in commodity price."
The measured portion of the resource is 516,000 tonnes LCE or 586,000 tonnes lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM). A measured mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape, and physical characteristics are estimated with confidence sufficient to allow the application of modifying factors to support detailed mine planning and final evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit.
The indicated portion of the resource is 463,000 tonnes LCE or 526,000 tonnes LHM. An indicated mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape, and physical characteristics are estimated with sufficient confidence to allow the application of modifying factors in sufficient detail to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit.
Technical information contained in this press release comes from the technical report dated Oct. 23, 2023, prepared by certain qualified persons at Sproule Associates Ltd. in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The updated technical report will be filed on SEDAR+ and the company's website within 45 days.
Upgrading a percentage of the company's total LCE resource base to M&I provides further confidence in its efforts to commercialize the KLP. A critical next step in that regard is the preparation of a prefeasibility study which, under NI 43-101, requires the resource base, or portions thereof, to be independently assessed as M&I. Another key component of the prefeasibility study will be the results of the company's field pilot, which the company is currently advancing the concept and design.
About Grounded Lithium Corp.
Grounded Lithium is a publicly traded lithium brine exploration and development company that controls approximately one million metric tonnes of LCE of M&I and approximately 3.2 million metric tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent of inferred resource over our focused landholdings in southwestern Saskatchewan as of the effective date of the updated technical report. The company's preliminary economic assessment titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report: Preliminary Economic Assessment Kindersley Lithium Project -- Phase 1," dated Aug. 9, 2023, and effective as of June 30, 2023, reports a phase 1 after-tax net present value (8 per cent) of $1-billion (U.S.) with an after-tax internal rate of return of 48.5 per cent.
Qualified persons
Scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been prepared under the supervision of Doug Ashton, PEng, Suryanarayana Karri, PGeoph, Alexey Romanov, PGeo, Meghan Klein, PEng, Dean Quirk, PEng, Jeffrey Weiss, PEng, Chad Hitchings, PL Eng, and Michael Munteanu, PEng, each of whom is a qualified person within the meaning of NI 43-101.
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