Winnipeg, Manitoba--(Newsfile Corp. - April 1, 2024) - Beyond Lithium Inc. (CSE: BY) (OTCQB: BYDMF) (the "Company" or "Beyond Lithium"), today announced the list of projects which will form part of its exploration portfolio going into the 2024 season. The Company also announced that it has entered into a binding letter of intent with Bounty Gold Corp. ("Bounty Gold") and Last Resorts Resources Ltd. ("Last Resort") to amend the terms of the March 30, 2023 option agreements between the parties (the "March 2023 Agreements").
One year ago, Beyond Lithium announced that it had entered into a three-year option agreement of 57 properties totalling 125,751 hectares from Bounty Gold and Last Resort with an annual cash option payment and share issuance to be made on the first, second and third anniversary of the March 2023 Agreements. The amendment defers the first anniversary cash payment of the March 2023 Agreements until August 31, 2024. Beyond also amended the terms of the Victory Option Agreement (the "Victory Agreement") (see the October 10, 2023 news release) with Last Resort and Bounty Gold to defer certain cash payments for the Victory Agreement to August 31st, 2024.
"Following careful planning over the last several weeks by the senior staff of Beyond Lithium, including our partners at Bounty Gold and Last Resorts, we are pleased to unveil our 2024 lithium exploration portfolio in Ontario," said Allan Frame, President and CEO of Beyond Lithium. "I cannot overstate the importance of the continued support by Bounty Gold and Last Resort who have agreed to defer all cash option payments until August 31st, 2024. This will allow our Company to continue to prioritize exploration dollars and keep dilution at a minimum. Given our low cash burn, most cash needs are now for exploration and will be addressed through flow-through dollars. These amendments will also allow Beyond Lithium to continue to have discussions with potential joint venture partners and optionors without being constrained by immediate financial necessities."
Jace Angell of Last Resort remarked, "On March 4th I stated that we were looking forward to continuing our relationship with Beyond Lithium and renegotiating our current agreements so that they are equitable and conducive to our long-term outlook and partnership. My partner, Jason at Bounty Gold, and I are excited to have reached an agreement with Beyond Lithium to push back our option payments as we are confident that the 2024 field season will see a continuation of the success we had in 2023 and we look forward to uncovering that potential with Beyond Lithium."
Alain Lambert, Cofounder and Capital Markets Advisor of Beyond, commented "We are thankful to Bounty Gold and Last Resort for amending the March 30 Agreements and the Victory Agreement. Option cash payments totaling $481,400 will be converted into promissory notes bearing an interest at 6% per annum maturing on August 31, 2024. As consideration for deferring the cash payments, Bounty Gold and Last Resort will each be issued 100,000 common shares of the Company. In accordance with the March 2023 Agreements, Beyond Lithium will issue 1,010,300 common shares in the aggregate to Bounty Gold and Last Resort as the first anniversary share issuance for the properties remaining in Beyond Lithium's portfolio which are optioned from them." He concluded that "All parties agreed that it made perfect sense to push back the cash option payments to August when the exploration will be in full swing, and the Company will have communicated progress on the ground for several months. The entire Beyond Lithium portfolio is ripe for additional discoveries in 2024 and the technical team is keen to get back into the field shortly."
Jason Leblanc, President/CEO of Bounty Gold commented: "For the past year, Jace and I have been committed to building our strong relationship with our partners at Beyond Lithium and committed to our shared goal of building shareholder value through discovery. We delivered in making significant new discoveries in 2023 and plan to repeat again in 2024. We weren't going to let some temporary headwinds in macro lithium markets stand in the way of our shared goals. We strongly believe in the long-term future of lithium, and we still believe this is a once in a generation opportunity to make significant new discoveries. With a streamlined portfolio now of only the highest quality greenfield lithium projects, our efforts in the field will be more focused than ever".
Lawrence Tsang VP Exploration stated: "In addition to the core four projects, Beyond Lithium will work to advance 23 additional projects that merit additional exploration and have garnered JV or option interest. Our exploration program will continue to rely strongly on the geological data collected in the field to establish a solid geological model for each project as it will provide a vector on how and where to look for further spodumene mineralization. Ideally, we would like to make the next discovery by simply spotting spodumene mineralization on an exposed surface. While field exploration may lead to spodumene discoveries we will continue to be driven by the geological model that we have established for each project to guide us to uncover both buried and exposed pegmatites and lithium mineralization."
Main Strategic Goals for 2024
The main strategic goals for 2024 are to (i) drill test the spodumene mineralized corridors at Victory and Ear Falls to demonstrate the size and the potential of the system along strike and at depth, (ii) uncover additional spodumene mineralization at the Victory Spodumene Project and the Ear Falls Spodumene Project along their well-defined exploration corridors, (iii) to discover new spodumene-bearing pegmatites at Cosgrave Lake and Wisa Lake, and (iv) advance the other projects through low cost prospecting and continue to pursue joint venture or option deals for them.
Projects (Figure 1):
Figure 1 Beyond's Four Primary Projects Map in relation to Existing Infrastructure
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Projects Synergies and Infrastructure
The four primary projects, the Victory Spodumene, the Ear Falls Spodumene, the Cosgrave Lake, and the Wisa Lake Projects, are located in proximity to existing infrastructure including access road, trans-Canada highway, trans-Canada railway, powerline, and nearby town with work force and equipment (Figure 1). In addition, the Ear Falls Spodumene and the Victory Spodumene Projects are located within 100 km of each other. From a recent operational review of the 2023 exploration program, the technical team has identified numerous opportunities to lower the overall exploration cost while exploring the Ear Falls Spodumene and the Victory Spodumene Projects in 2024 which will provide a better and a more stable budget control under this challenging market conditions. Based on georeferenced and digitized geological map obtained from the Geological Survey of Ontario, several hundred of outcrops within these prospective trends need to be visited and prospected, many of which were historically mapped as containing pegmatite. Highway access and existing logging roads will provide our field teams with ideal access, exposing Beyond Shareholders to the potential for more low-cost discoveries in 2024.
Permitting
In December 2023, Beyond Lithium submitted the exploration permit application for the Victory and Ear Falls Spodumene Projects. to apply for mechanical stripping and diamond drilling activities. Each application is for 30 drilling sites and 20 stripping locations. Each drill site is designed to drill multiple holes. The stripping locations are focused on each project's main exploration corridors. Both permit applications have entered the public review and comment period. Beyond continues to engage and to consult with the Ministry and Aboriginal communities throughout this process.
Description of the Exploration Portfolio
Lawrence Tsang, VP Exploration of Beyond, commented, "With the data we have collected from the effective 2023 exploration program, we are excited to maintain the four primary projects (Table 1) and an additional of 23 other prospective projects (Table 2) and continue to be one of the largest greenfield lithium explorers in Ontario in 2024. It is important to note that the additional 23 projects are located within well-known districts with significant LCT pegmatites discoveries and deposits. Moreover, most of these projects are also near existing infrastructures with good accessibility. We expect our 2024 exploration program can begin as early as May on projects located in southern and southwestern Ontario like the Wisa Project, the Cosgrave Lake Project etc. With the great track records of our experienced technical and prospecting teams, we are eager to begin our 2024 exploration program to continue exploring for additional spodumene mineralization and to uncover more brand new LCT pegmatites in Ontario."
Case Lake Group Projects
Bear Head Group Projects
Mavis East Group Projects
Georgia Lake Group Projects
Superb Group Projects
Hearst Group Projects
Name | Area (ha) |
Victory Spodumene | 16,682 |
Ear Falls Spodumene | 20,623 |
Cosgrave Lake | 8,993 |
Wisa | 6,666 |
Table 1. Beyond Priority Project List
Table 2. List of the additional projects in Ontario
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References
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
All collected rock samples were put in sturdy plastic bags, tagged, and sealed at site. Sample bags were then put in rice bags and kept securely before being sent by road transport or delivered by the crew supervisor to SGS's preparation facility in Red Lake or Sudbury, Ontario, for sample preparation. Pulps are analyzed at the SGS facility in Burnaby, BC. All samples are analyzed with Four-Acid Digestion/Combined ICP-AES/MS package (49 elements). Samples with lithium overlimit (>10,000 ppm Li) are analyzed with another Four-Acid Digestion with higher detection limit of up to 10% Li. Batches of samples with overlimit >10,000 ppm or 1% Li are analyzed with Sodium Peroxide Fusion for validation. The QA/QC protocol included the insertion and monitoring of appropriate reference materials, in this case high concentration and low concentration certified OREAS and CDN lithium standards to validate the accuracy and precision of the assay results.
Qualified Person and Third-Party Data
The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Lawrence Tsang, P.Geo., VP Exploration of the Company. Lawrence Tsang is a "qualified person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
About Beyond Lithium Inc.
Beyond Lithium Inc. has a large greenfield lithium exploration portfolio in Ontario with 27 high potential greenfield lithium properties totalling over 119,000 hectares. The Company has adopted the project generator business model to maximize funds available for exploration projects, while minimizing shareholder dilution. Beyond Lithium is advancing certain of its projects with its exploration team and will seek to option other properties to joint venture partners. Partnering on various projects will provide a source of non-dilutive working capital, partner-funded exploration, and long-term residual exposure to exploration success.
Beyond Lithium currently has 33,874,482 common shares outstanding.
Please follow @BeyondLithium on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
For more information, please refer to the Company's website at www.beyondLithium.ca.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding future capital expenditures, anticipated content, commencement, and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Company's projects and mineral properties, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, resources and/or reserves on the Company's projects and mineral properties, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking information. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "will", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In stating the forward-looking information in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that market fundamentals will result in sustained precious and base metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future exploration of the Company's properties, the availability of financing on suitable terms, and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.
Forward-Looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements of forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, statements as to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, the proposed expenditures for exploration work on its properties, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the Canadian Securities Exchange), permits or financing, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, the Company's limited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated February 23, 2022 and other filings of the Company with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking information in this news release except as otherwise required by law.
For further information, please contact:
Allan Frame
President and CEO
Tel: 403-470-8450
Email: allan.frame@beyondLithium.ca
Jason Frame
Manager of Communications
Tel: 587-225-2599
Email: jason.frame@beyondLithium.ca
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