Battery Grade Manganese Exploration & Development Update

ChemX Materials Ltd (ASX:CMX) (ChemX or the Company), a materials technology company focused on providing the critical materials required for electrification and decarbonisation, is pleased to update the market on its proposed manganese exploration program.

• Manganese RC Drill Exploration Program Approved for January 2023
• Program Designed to Define and Estimate a Maiden Mineral Resource
• Manganese Testwork to Produce High Purity Manganese Sulphate Monohydrate (HPMSM)
• Customer Engagement for Early Qualification Commencing

ChemX has secured Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation (EPEPR) approval for a reverse circulation (RC) drilling program on the Jamieson Tank project from the South Australian Department of Mining and Energy. The drill program is scheduled to commence post-harvest in January 2023 and comprise approximately 5,000m.

The aim is to progress the Exploration Target (reported to the ASX, 27 July 2022) to estimate a maiden Mineral Resource in accordance with the JORC Code 2012. The Company’s project location plan is included as Figure 1.

The Company has executed a drilling contract and access agreements with relevant landholders on the Eyre Peninsula to conduct its 2023 exploration program. ChemX is committed to maintaining sound relationships with communities on the Eyre Peninsula and is mindful of conducting exploration and field work at times that reduce inconvenience to landholders.

Due to the opportunities being presented by the US Inflation Reduction act, the Company will be prioritising manganese exploration over kaolin to become a supplier of battery grade manganese to the North American and European Electric Vehicle markets.

Supply chains for critical minerals are undergoing a fundamental realignment, which ChemX with its first class, in-house metallurgical and chemical engineering team is well positioned to take advantage of.

Exploration Drill Program

The purpose of the 2023 drilling program is to infill the drill spacing to an approximate 100m by 50m over the northern-most 2km strike of Jamieson Tank for estimating a maiden Mineral Resource. Downhole geophysics will be employed to derive an in-situ density and support the Mineral Resource estimation. In addition, the geophysics will be used to complement the geological interpretation of Jamieson Tank and improve the geological continuity which was identified as a risk in the Exploration Target.

The manganese mineralisation is predominantly cryptomelane, hosted in jaspilite, and positioned near surface under a thin horizon of Quaternary clays and sands.

In addition to the Jamieson Tank project, ChemX has identified further manganese prospects at Bunora West, Hodgins, Windyzell, Francis and Polinga (Figure 1). These prospects have not been adequately explored and offer future discovery potential and feed options for the proposed future High Purity Manganese Sulphate Production plant.

The Company has been actively engaging with industry participants in the battery supply chain to begin early qualification of its High Purity Manganese Sulphate Monohydrate. Early engagement and qualification is an essential step to secure offtake agreements for Battery Grade Manganese which is increasingly becoming an important part of the electric vehicle battery chemistry, due to its ability to increase energy density, reduce costs and increase consumer take up of electric vehicles.

Manganese Testwork Programme

In early 2022, the Company completed its initial testwork program (ASX Announcement 11 May 2022), using manganese samples from previous tenement owners. The initial testwork program achieved manganese sulphate crystals with 99.7% purity. The testwork program was designed to test the efficacy of the chosen flow sheet, which achieved near specification quality without final purification steps. Two samples grading 12.2% Mn and 25.5% were composited to a single sample and submitted for heavy liquid separation at >2.95 and >3.30 density mediums. The results represented in Table 1 demonstrated that the ore was amenable to upgrade to battery grade levels using heavy liquid separation.

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