Limited Supplies of Supplementary Cementitious Materials Creates Opportunities in California for I-Minerals Metakolin

VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - October 06, 2016) - I-Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: IMA) (OTCQB: IMAHF) ("I-Minerals" or the "Company") is pleased to announce marketing personnel recently attended the Natural Pozzolan-New Pozzolan Symposium/Demonstration (the "Symposium/Demonstration") held in Corona, CA on October 4^th & 5^th, 2016. The purpose of the Symposium/Demonstration was to showcase natural pozzolans to the California Department of Transport (CalTrans). Natural pozzolans are one of many supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) which contribute to the properties of hardened concrete through hydraulic or pozzolanic activity. In the past CalTrans has relied primarily on fly ash as an SCM for its infrastructure projects. However, good quality fly ash (the ash which remains when coal is burned to generate electricity) is becoming increasingly harder to source as less electricity is generated using coal as the heat source and only certain ashes are acceptable for use in concrete. The lack of availability of qualified SCMs has caused delays to some CalTrans projects with such delays having adverse budget impacts.

I-Minerals has developed a natural pozzolan known as Bovill Metakaolin that is produced by calcining (heating to about 900°C) kaolin, one of the four mineral products produced from the Helmer Bovill property. Metakaolin is one of the best performing SCMs and consequently can be used in smaller quantities than fly ash and still generate as good or better results. Testing has also shown metakaolin to be a more consistent pozzolan than other natural pozzolans such as pumice. I-Minerals is uniquely positioned as it is the only potential new producer of metakaolin outside of the Georgia Clay Belt.

Cement manufacturing produces CO₂ as it requires very high temperatures to burn raw materials and give the clinker (used in cement production) its unique properties. SCM's are partial substitutes for cement and therefore reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- and California has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

"As coal fired power plants get converted to natural gas or otherwise shut down, the shortage of SCMS is only going to increase," stated Thomas Conway, President and CEO of I-Minerals. "The situation in California is not unique as we are aware of similar shortages of quality SCMs in Colorado, Oregon and elsewhere. When our metakaolin production volumes as detailed in our Feasibility Study are contrasted with SCM demand in states close to our Bovill, Idaho operations, we could easily sell out our entire metakaolin production to one concrete company in one state. Metakaolin is one of four co-products targeted for production at our Helmer-Bovill property and with minimal other metakaolin production in the Western US, the opportunities are exciting."