Grid Metals Receives Positive Engineering Study; Primero Report Outlines Viability and Costs of Reconfiguring True North Mill for Lithium Processing - Seite 2

• A metallurgical test program was completed by XPS Process Solutions Laboratories (Falconbridge, Ontario) during the course of the Primero study to support the design of the mill circuit.
• The new metallurgical test program resulted in ~70% recoveries using the new flow sheet. The recovery is subject to the mill receiving a crushed (to ~20 microns) and sorted product. The met work aligns well with prior metallurgical test work completed by the XPS lab earlier this year that achieved recoveries of ~75% (see Grid Metals' June 26, 2023 press release).
• The new metallurgical testing produced a marketable spodumene concentrate with a grade of 5.5% Li₂O and a low iron content of 1.4% Fe₂O₃.

Robin Dunbar, CEO of Grid Metals, commented, "The work completed by Primero has outlined a low capital intensity project and has quantified operating and capital costs. This study gives us confidence to move forward with the lease agreement for the True North Mill. The True North Lease Agreement gives Grid access to a permitted mill and tailings facility within trucking distance of our Donner Lake lithium resource. We believe that with the True North Mill lease, the Donner Lake lithium project can be one of the next producing lithium projects in North America. We are moving ahead with further permitting, engineering and study work to advance our Donner Lake lithium project towards near-term production. We are conceptually targeting production of ~ 75,000 tpa of spodumene concentrate from True North based on 450,000 tonnes throughput and 70% recoveries."

True North Mill Overview

The True North mill, located in Bissett, Manitoba, sits approximately 85 km by existing all-weather road from the Donner Lake Lithium Project (see Figure 1). The project site boasts excellent infrastructure (see Figure 2) including an assay lab, large workshop, and camp facilities along with the recently idled processing facility and tailings management area. The mill was last operational in November 2022 when it was used to reprocess gold tailings. The current processing facility consists of crushing, milling, centrifugal gravity concentration and flotation circuits.