Retention License 00007 Renewal Approved For Makuutu Western Zone

The Board of Ionic Rare Earths Limited (“IonicRE” or “The Company”) (ASX: IXR) is pleased to advise that Retention Licence (RL) 00007, at its Makuutu Rare Earths Project (“Makuutu” or ‘the Project”) in Uganda, has been renewed for a further two years.

• Application for renewal of RL 00007 lodged and approved within two weeks by Uganda’s Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines (DGSM)
• RL 00007 currently has an Inferred Resource of 39 million tonnes at 470 ppm TREO with potential for addition with additional drilling planned for 2023
• RL 00007 expected to be the next tenement that will progress to MLA

Makuutu is being developed by Rwenzori Rare Metals Limited (“RRM”), a Ugandan private company which owns 100% of the Makuutu Project. IonicRE is a 51% owner of RRM and moving to 60%, with a first right over the remaining 40%.

RL 00007, illustrated in Figure 1, covers the Makuutu Western Zone (MWZ), and contains an Inferred Resource of 39 million tonnes at 470 ppm TREO (Table 2 and ASX: 3 May 2002). RL 00007 is located immediately west of the Retention Licence (RL) 1693, which is currently under Mining Licence Application (MLA) and will provide the basis for additional capacity and organic growth at Makuutu once initial mining and processing activity commences.

This renewed RL is also immediately south of the prospective exploration target located at EL00257, where applications have been submitted for drilling to commence this year to further define the scale of potential ionic clay mineralisation to the west of the MLA area. Once these new exploration approvals have been granted, the Company intends to initiate the Phase 5 drill program at Makuutu to move the resource to an Indicated Resource classification.

IonicRE’s Managing Director Mr Tim Harrison stated;

“The rapid approval of the renewal of RL 00007, which occurred within 2 weeks of finalising the submission documentation, is another positive reflection of the strong support IonicRE and the Project has within Uganda. As the Company, via RRM, finalises the MLA at Makuutu for RL 1693, we remain confident that Makuutu will continue to grow and support a much larger Project.”

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