Reung Kiet Lithium Project: Additional Flotation Test-work Confirms and Improves Results

Battery and critical metals explorer and developer Pan Asia Metals Limited (ASX: PAM) (‘PAM’ or ‘the Company’) is pleased to provide metallurgical test-work results for flotation recovery of lithium mica concentrates using representative sample from the Reung Kiet lithium prospect.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Metallurgical flotation test-work confirms and improves on previous work.
• Material improvement in Li₂O grade and recovery for concentrate derived from weathered mineralisation, showing 71% Li₂O recovery at 3.11% Li₂O grade in surpassing previous results of 63% recovery at 2.80% Li₂O from previous work.
• Lithium mica concentrate derived from fresh mineralisation showing 76% Li₂O recovery at 3.10% Li₂O grade, reaffirming previous test-work results.
• Both fresh and weathered mineralisation are amenable to conventional crushing, grinding and flotation using very similar flowsheets.
• Flotation test-work of products from ‘ore-sorting’ test-work now underway.
• PAM is rapidly advancing the RK Pre-Feasibility Study for Mining Lease Applications.

Pan Asia Metals Managing Director, Paul Lock, said: “The purpose of Nagrom’s test- work was to verify BGRIMM’s results. We are pleased that this program reaffirms and, in some areas, improves upon previous results, which bodes well for the economics of the RK Project. With this confirmatory test-work completed, we can now progress on to post ore sorting test-work and process refinement after which we are confident in achieving further improvements to recoveries and concentrate grades.”

The Reung Kiet Lithium Project (RKLP) is one of PAM’s key assets. RKLP is a hard rock lithium project with lithium hosted in lepidolite/mica rich pegmatites chiefly composed of quartz, albite, lepidolite and muscovite, with minor cassiterite and tantalite as well as other accessory minerals. Previous open pit mining extracting tin from the weathered pegmatites was conducted into the early 1970’s.

PAM’s objective has been to continue drilling with the aim of increasing and upgrading the existing Mineral Resource, which will then be used as part of a Pre-Feasibility Study that will consider various options to determine the technical and economic viability of the project including the LCE production profile as well as associated by-products.

PAM is focusing on lepidolite as a source of lithium as peer group studies indicate that lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide projects using lepidolite as their plant feedstock have the potential to be placed near the bottom of the cost curve. Lepidolite has also been demonstrated to have a lower carbon emission intensity than other lithium sources.

Reung Kiet Prospect (RK)

The RK Prospect was a relatively large open cut tin mine. The old pit is about 500m long and up to 125m wide (see Figure 1).

Mining of the weathered pegmatites extended up to 30m below surface, to the top of hard rock. Pan Asia has identified a prospective zone at least 1km long, reporting an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate as shown in Table 1. Please refer to PAM ASX announcement, “Inaugural Mineral Resource Estimate Reung Kiet Lithium” dated June 28, 2022.

Table 1. RKLP – Reung Kiet Prospect – Inferred Mineral Resource, 28 June, 2022

MineralResourcereported above 0.25% Li2O% cut-off. Appropriate rounding applied.

The Mineral Resource is based upon the first 46 holes drilled at Reung Kiet. Ongoing drilling has seen the completion of an additional 56 holes, which will be included in the Mineral Resource update which aims to increase the Mineral Resource tonnage and upgrade portions of the Mineral Resource from Inferred to Indicated and possibly Measured classification. The Mineral Resource update is currently being prepared by CSA Global and is expected to be reported in August. The pegmatite swarms remain open to the north and south and at depth on many sections especially in the south (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Reung Kiet Prospect, Phang Nga Province, southern Thailand

Metallurgical Test-work Details

The test-work was conducted by Nagrom on two separate composites comprised of fresh and weathered mineralisation derived from laboratory ‘coarse crush rejects’ (100% <3.35mm) from ½ HQ sized drill core selected from drillholes identified in Figure 1 (orange drill collars).

The fresh composite sample is derived from 278 individual samples from 16 holes. This sample returned a head assay of 0.64% Li₂O. The weathered composite sample is derived from 133 individual samples from 11 holes. It returned a head assay of 0.80% Li₂O.

The samples were selected to represent mineralisation throughout the deposit and reflect what are considered to be mineable widths in a potential open cut mine. Therefore, the samples contain both internal and external dilution predominantly composed of waste to low-grade siltstone.

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