I-Minerals Receives Operation and Reclamation Plan Approval - Seite 2

"With this very important milestone having been successfully achieved we are anxious to finish the last few stages of our ongoing strategic market studies and continue to advance the project as expeditiously as possible," continued Thomas Conway. "This is a relatively easy mine to build with a short construction time frame and we are reviewing opportunities to shorten the time to production by starting work on the FEED study and detailed engineering advance of securing all funds necessary for the CAPEX."

The Company would like to thank the Idaho Department of Lands and the Idaho Land Board for their diligence in reviewing our permitting documentation and the attention to detail with timely responses.

Based upon the March 2016 Feasibility Study by GBM Engineers, the Bovill Kaolin Project is expected to create 100 jobs in the construction phase and 90 full time jobs over the 25+ year mine life. The project is expected to make an appreciable contribution to Latah County and generate additional revenue for the State of Idaho.

"With respect to mineral marketing, we are very pleased with the way markets for our products are firming up," noted Thomas Conway. "As we have seen in recent press releases, high value applications for our halloysite developing in Europe in life science and gas absorption technologies. Our pilot plant work indicates K-spar is poised to be the highest K₂O- feldspar available, and there is a pronounced shortage of fly ash as a pozzolan in the western cement markets that bodes well for our metakaolin. We have never felt better about our Bovill Kaolin Project."

A. Lamar Long, CPG, is a qualified person ("QP") for I-Minerals Inc. and has reviewed and approved the contents of this release.

About I-Minerals Inc.

I-Minerals is developing multiple deposits of high purity, high value halloysite, quartz, potassium feldspar and kaolin at its strategically located Helmer-Bovill property in north Idaho. A 2016 Feasibility Study on the Bovill Kaolin Deposit led by GBM Engineers LLC, who were responsible for overall project management and the process plant and infrastructure design, including OPEX and CAPEX calculated an After Tax NPV of US$249.8 million with a 25.8% After Tax IRR. Initial CAPEX was estimated at $108.3 million with a 3.7 year After Tax payback. Other engineering services were provided by HDR Engineering, Inc. (all environmental components; hydrology / hydrogeology; road design); Tetra Tech, Inc. (tailings storage facility design); Mine Development Associates (mine modelling; ore scheduling; mineral reserve estimation); and SRK Consulting (U.S.) Inc. (mineral resource estimation). Permitting work with the State of Idaho is well underway.