Iconic Receives 2nd Option Payment for Bonnie Claire and Extends Deadline for Final Payment

Overview

The lithium battery market is booming as electric vehicles and green energy continue to rise in popularity. It’s clear that between consumer trends and regulatory shifts, this trend shouldn’t be slowing down any time soon.

Market research from Global Data predicts global lithium demand to more than double, rising from 47,300 tonnes in 2020 to 117,400 tonnes in 2024. For investors wanting to get into the mining sphere, looking to exploration and development companies focused on lithium presents exciting investor opportunities and prospectively high returns.

Iconic Minerals (TSXV:ICM,OTC:BVTEF,FSE:YQGB) is a mineral exploration and development company focused on its several high-quality lithium exploration projects in Nevada, USA. Resource-rich properties, safe mining-friendly conditions and an expert management team prime the company for significant economic growth.

The company’s flagship Bonnie Claire lithium project is 80 percent owned by Iconic and presents very promising resource potential. Early exploration campaigns on the property have revealed high recoveries of lithium values from sediments and additional commercially viable by-products the company can capitalize on. Iconic Minerals is operating it as a joint venture with Nevada Lithium, which obtained a 20 percent interest in March 2021.

The Bonnie Claire lithium property encompassed in the famous Sarcobatus Valley holds 1,155 claims covering over 18,300 acres (28.6 square miles). Operating in the same state as one of Tesla’s facilities, the property leverages excellent infrastructure, strategic positioning and prime mining conditions.

The company’s other highly prospective lithium property is its Smith Creek Valley property in Nevada. The property hosts considerable similarities in geochemical and geological characteristics to the nearby Clayton Valley Basin, where lithium brines are produced. This comparison presents Iconic with exciting development potential and warrants further exploration.

Iconic closed a financing of C$1,000,000 in the beginning of 2021 and announced an additional funding of US$1,600,000 in March from its joint venture partner, Nevada Lithium, which completed Phase One of its Joint Venture Option Agreement with Iconic, for 20 percent interest in the Bonnie Claire. This funding has enabled the accelerated development of the company’s Bonnie Claire lithium project. The funding also pushes the pathway to production forward for the project, which consists of metallurgical testing, groundwork, an extensive drilling program and bulk sampling over the next 12 months. This includes the completion of its Preliminary Economic Assessment in Q2 of 2021.  A Plan of Operation for the Bonnie Claire project has also been initiated.

A world-class leadership heads Iconic. The team brings years of expertise in mineral exploration, venture capital markets and corporate finance. Together they have built a highly attractive mining project portfolio prepped for success.

Iconic’s Company Highlights

• Iconic is a mining exploration and development company focused on exciting lithium and gold projects in Nevada, US.
• The company’s flagship Bonnie Claire lithium project hosts excellent lithium extraction and discovery potential and exists in one of the state’s largest landholdings. It has the potential to be one of the largest deposits in the US.
• The company has 80 percent ownership of the Bonnie Claire lithium project, and Nevada Lithium a 20 percent interest.
• Iconic’s other highly prospective lithium property in Nevada is its Smith Creek Valley property. The Smith Creek Valley basin has the potential to mimic the significant successes of adjacent basins and projects in the area.
• Iconic’s expertly curated project portfolio also includes exciting gold properties that host excellent development and discovery potential.

Iconic’s Key Projects

Bonnie Claire Project

The Bonnie Claire property, which sits within the Sarcobatus Valley, is approximately 30 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide. The surrounding region’s geochemical profile contains quartz-rich volcanic tuffs, anomalous amounts of lithium and salt flats that have yielded lithium values up to 340 ppm at surface and up to 2,500 ppm in the sediments. The current estimates of depth to basement rocks range from 600 to 1,200 meters, with the potential to expand. A 2018 NI 43-101 report defined an inferred resource of 5.37 billion kilograms LCE with an average grade of 963 ppm lithium.

A recent drill program identified four drill holes with 43-101 compliant resources of 28.58 billion kilograms of lithium carbonate equivalent. The drill program that defined the current resource only covered an area of 3 km2, but previous geophysics points at a potentially much larger mineralized area of 27.3 km2.

Drilling to date has shown exciting lithium mineralization systems that could be greater than 600 meters. The company already has significant drilling permits and metallurgy to advance the development and determine the most efficient recovery method for the project.

Smith Creek Valley Property

Smith Creek Valley property sits within Nevada’s Smith Creek Valley, which is over 64 km long in a north-northeast direction and averages 14.5 kilometers in width. Iconic currently controls 808 placer claims totaling 65.4 km2.

The enclosed Smith Creek Valley Basin covers 1,507 km2 and leverages strategic positioning near the Clayton Valley Basin, where lithium brine is produced. The majority of rock weathering into the basin is lithium-rich felsic ash flow tuff. Activity in this geothermal region is believed to be a major contributing factor to developing these economic lithium brines.

Previous work on the property includes a gravity study of the Smith Creek Valley area, which revealed a large gravity under the southern portion of the valley. Additionally, sampling of brine evaporates located northwest of the project site returned lithium values of up to 470 ppm. These findings could mean geothermally heated groundwater is bringing up lithium mineralization to the surface.

Iconic’s Management Team

Richard R. Kern, B.Sc., M.Sc., P.Geo. — President, CEO & Director

Richard R. Kern is a professional geologist with over 25 years of experience in base and precious metal exploration in the US, Central America, South America and Australia. He has been involved in significant discoveries in the Western US and Australia, including recent finds at Fire Creek Mine, Nevada; Moss Mine, Arizona; and Bruner Property, Nevada.

His hands-on, field-oriented mentor management style has been implemented with great success. Kern’s exploration involves a mixture of geology, geochemistry and drilling with state of the art GIS, geochemical and geophysical methods. Kern was a principal in the companies Bristle Cone Ventures LP, Geo Surveys and Sierra Vision Launch LLC. He has held executive and management level positions in companies such as Western North America North Mining Inc., Homestake Mining company, Superior Oil and US Geological Survey.

Kern’s areas of expertise include establishing base and precious metal exploration programs throughout North America, emphasizing Western US, Mexico, Honduras and Panama. He has also managed significant gold and copper exploration projects in Western US, Australia, Mexico and Ecuador, including some minor work in New Guinea, Malaysia, China and Fiji.

Kern has a Masters of Science Degree in Geology from Idaho State University and a Bachelor of Science Degree from Montana State University in Geology.

Richard Barnett, CPA, CGA — CFO & Secretary

Richard Barnett has extensive corporate experience as a CFO, controller and secretary with over 20 years of accounting experience serving both public and private corporations. His experience covers many companies producing oil and gas, resource and explorations, engineering, and research and development. Barnett is a member of the Certified General Accountants of British Columbia. To stay abreast of new business procedures, he has taken extensive business and accounting courses in addition to regulatory courses and workshops. In addition to overseeing the company’s accounting functions, Barnett’s responsibilities include managing the annual audit, budgeting, preparation of financial statements and management discussions and analyses.

Keturah Nathe — Director and VP Corporate Development

Keturah Nathe has 13 years of experience in the corporate finance and management industry, including investor relations, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate development and corporate management as a director and officer.

Huitt Tracey — Director

Huitt Tracey has been involved in the North American venture capital markets for over 22 years. Serving in capacities as stockbroker, director, officer or investor relations consultant, he has provided expertise to numerous companies in industries, including advanced technology, IP, telecommunication, biotechnology, energy and mining. In more than a decade as an Account Executive with brokerage firms that specialize in the corporate financing of American and Canadian ventures, he assisted in the initial public offering and development funding of many now well-established companies that pioneered innovative and disruptive technologies.

Jurgen Wolf — Director

Jurgen Wolf has been involved in the oil and gas industry for more than 26 years, assisting public companies with investor relations and administration. Wolf was educated in Germany and immigrated to Canada in 1953. From 1958 to 1982, he operated and owned pre-cast concrete factories in Calgary and Vancouver, and from 1982 to 2002, he operated and owned J.A. Wolf Projects Ltd., a commercial construction company.