(TheNewswire)
September 29, 2020 - TheNewswire- Rockport,Canada - New Age Metals Inc. (NAM) (TSXV:NAM ) ; ( OTC:NMTLF ) ; ( FSE:P7J) ("NAM" or the"Company") NAM ispleased to announce its Q4 2020 program for the River Valley PalladiumProject near Sudbury, Ontario. The primary focus of the program is aPhase 1 of a multi-phase rhodium assay program designed to prove-upthe world's most valuable metal as a payable component of RiverValley. Chairman & CEO Harry Barr stated; "We have seen theprice of rhodium run from $6,050 an ounce to a high of $13,800 thisyear and the company plans to investigate the potential economic metalcredit that rhodium offers at River Valley. We know the projectcontains rhodium as evidenced by its presence in our latest MineralResource Estimate. However, rhodium was not included as a payablemetal in our 2019 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), due toinsufficient number of assays and limited metallurgical recoveryinformation. The Mineral Resource Estimation work completed to dateshows over 25,000 ounces of rhodium in the Measured plus Indicatedresource classification and an additional 20,000 ounces in theInferred classification. The highest-grade rhodium assay is 0.873 g/t Rhfor drill core from the Lismer North Ridge Zone . The first phase of the rhodium work willfocus on the northern area of the Project, where initial productionwould potentially begin as determined in the 2019 PEA Study. This potentialmetal credit may be significant at current pricing and our objectiveis to complete sufficient re-assaying and metallurgy to prove thatrhodium could provide up to 5% of the Project's payable metalpackage".
Rhodium (Rh), one of the six PlatinumGroup Metals, is a silver-white metallic element that is highlyreflective and strongly resistant to corrosion. Rh's primary use is incatalytic converters of automobiles, where it reduces the amount ofnitrogen oxides (NOx) exhaust gases emitted into the atmosphere. In 2019,almost 90% of rhodium demand was from the auto-catalystsector . Rh is a veryspecial metal in terms of its performance in converting NOx intoharmless gases, and will continue to be the metal ofchoice for the control of NOx .
Mined supply of Rh in2019 was over 750,000oz and recycled supply was 315,000oz, resultingin a deficit of approximately 50,000oz. Rh supply is inelastic to demand for variousreasons: Rh content in the earth's crust is extremely rare, and themetal is mined as a by-product of platinum and palladium mining ornickel mining. There is no such thing as a primary Rh mine, and the major producersare all located in South Africa .South Africa produces over 85% of the global Rh supply annually, withmajority of this supply being generated by the mining companies listedbelow (Rh production listed as a percentage of overall miningproduction):
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- Sibanye Stillwater (2019 Rhproduction, 7% overall contributed 22% of revenue)
- Anglo Platinum (H12020 Rh production,7.5% overall contributed 34% of revenue)
- Impala Platinum (H12020 Rhproduction, 6.5% overall contributed 25% of revenue)
Rhodium (Rh), the world's most valuablemetal (US$ 12,000/oz as of September 28, 2020),
is present with palladium and platinum at the River Valley Deposit(Figure 1). However, the amount of existing Rh assays is relativelysmall and their spatial distribution limited, due to the high cost ofassaying. Thehighest-grade rhodium assay is 0.873 g/t Rh for a core sample from theLismer North Zone . Rhodium isincluded in the 2001, 2012, 2018 and 2019 Mineral Resource Estimates.Rhodium grades in the 2019 Mineral Resource Estimate (Table 1) arebased on
Rh assay data for 7,471 drill core samples and 2,641 channel samples,for a total of 10,112 assays. Of these, 8,268 core and channel sampleRh assays records are for the Dana North Zone,
1,338 core and channel sample Rh assay records for the Dana SouthZone, and 506 core sample assays for the Lismer Zones: there are no Rh assaysavailable in the database for the Pardo, Pine, Banshee, Lismer Ridge,Varley, Azen, and Razor zones .Clearly, the Rh assay data distribution is highly concentrated at DanaNorth. Furthermore, the rhodium mineral hollingworthite (Rh, Pt, Pd)AsS has been identified during mineralogical and metallurgicaltestwork studies of drill core from Dana North and Dana South.Although included in the 2019 Mineral Resource Estimate for the RiverValley Palladium deposit, Rh was excluded in the 2019 PreliminaryEconomic Assessment as payable metal in the Net Smelter Returnestimates.
In addition, a relatively small amountof additional Rh assay data (337 analyses) are available for coresamples analyzed during an academic research project and for surfacegrab samples (158) assayed during exploration programs. The highestgrades were 0.372 g/t Rh for the core and 0.309 g/t Rh for the surfacegrab samples. However, these data cannot be used directly for MineralResource Estimation purposes.
The Rhodium AssayProgram for Q4 2020 is to be based on re-assaying available drill coresamples for Rh. The drill holesto be sampled will be carefully selected from representative drillcross-sections of priority zones, primarily Pine Zone and possiblyDana South and Lismer North. Samples from mineralized core intervalsabove the lower cut-off grade and adjacent material are to besubmitted to an appropriate laboratory for PGM assay with enhanceddetection limits.
In addition to Rh (and palladium platinum and gold), the minor PGMruthenium (Ru) and iridium (Ir)will also be assayed. The Q4 2020 work will be Phase 1 of a multi-phaseprogram . Pending results andprogress, the follow-up phases of work will include more sampling andassaying and mineralogical and metallurgical testwork, in order toultimately prove-up rhodium as a payable metal for the River ValleyProject.
Figure 1. Themineralized zones and current pit constrained Mineral ResourceEstimates of the River Valley Palladium Deposit near Sudbury,Ontario. Source: NAM press release dated August 8, 2019.
Additional Activities for Q4 2020
Additional activities planned for Q4regarding River Valley include environmental baseline studies,archaeological assessments, and development of new exploration targetsfor field validation and testing in 2021. The environmental baselinestudies will involve a second round of surface water quality samplingand flow measurement. Exploration targeting will continue to focus onfootwall mineralization, though at the Dana South Zone in addition tothe Pine Zone-T3 target. The interior of the River Valley Intrusionwill also be re-evaluated for the possibility of MT and gravitysurveys to aid development of targeting models for contact-type PGMdeposits.
New AgeMetals is a junior mineral exploration and development company focusedon the discovery, exploration and development of green metal projectsin North America. The Companyhas two divisions; a Platinum Group Metals division and a Lithium/RareElement division. The PGM division includes the 100% owned RiverValley Project, one of North America's largest undeveloped PlatinumGroup Metals Projects, situated 100 km from Sudbury, Ontario as wellas the Genesis PGM Project in Alaska. The Lithium division is thelargest mineral claim holder in the Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field,where the Company is exploring for hard rock lithium and various rareelements such as tantalum and rubidium. Our philosophy is to be aproject generator with the objective of optioning our projects withmajor and junior mining companies through to production. The Company is activelyseeking an option/ joint venture partner for its road-accessibleGenesis PGM project in Alaska and for our Lithium division inManitoba.
About the River Valley PalladiumProject
The details of the updated Mineral Resource Estimate(MRE) and Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) were announced in thepress release dated August 9, 2019 and are described on NAM's website. The pit constrained Updated Mineral ResourceEstimate formed the basis of the PEA . At acut-off grade of 0.35 g/t PdEq, the Updated Mineral Resource Estimatecontains 2.867 Moz PdEq in the Measured plus Indicated classificationsand 1.059 Moz PdEq in the Inferred classification. The PEA is a preliminary report, but it demonstrates thatthere are potentially positive economics for a large-scale mining openpit operation, with 14 years of Palladium production. Refer to the NAM website (www.newagemetals.com) fordetails.
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The contents contained herein thatrelate to Exploration Results or Mineral Resources is based oninformation compiled, reviewed or prepared by Dr. Bill Stone, P.Geo.,a consulting geoscientist for New Age Metals. Dr. Stone is theQualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and hasreviewed and approved the technical content of this newsrelease.
On behalf of the Board ofDirectors
" Harry Barr"
Harry G. Barr
Chairman andCEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange norits Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in thepolicies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for theadequacy or accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Note Regarding ForwardLooking Statements: This release contains forward-looking statementsthat involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differmaterially from actual future events or results and are based oncurrent expectations or beliefs. For this purpose, statements ofhistorical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Inaddition, forward-looking statements include statements in which theCompany uses words such as "continue", "efforts","expect", "believe", "anticipate","confident", "intend", "strategy","plan", "will", "estimate","project", "goal", "target","prospects", "optimistic" or similar expressions. These statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, andactual results may differ materially depending on a variety ofimportant factors, including, among others, the Company's ability andcontinuation of efforts to timely and completely make availableadequate current public information, additional or differentregulatory and legal requirements and restrictions that may beimposed, and other factors as may be discussed in the documents filedby the Company on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), including the most recentreports that identify important risk factors that could cause actualresults to differ from those contained in the forward-lookingstatements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to reviewor confirm analysts' expectations or estimates or to release publiclyany revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events orcircumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence ofunanticipated events. Investors should not place undue reliance onforw ard-lookingstatements.
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