Beyond Lithium announces 2024 Strategic Plan for NWO properties

Beyond Lithium Inc. the largest greenfield lithium portfolio explorer in Ontario with projects across the province located in multiple well-known lithium exploring districts, today provided an update on its 2024 strategic priorities.

"Following careful planning over the last several weeks by the senior staff of Beyond Lithium, including our partners at Bounty Gold Corp. ("Bounty Gold") and Last Resorts Resources Ltd. ("Last Resort"), we are pleased to unveil our priorities for the current year. These priorities take into account the exploration success achieved in 2023 and the current capital markets conditions for lithium explorers," said Allan Frame, President and CEO of Beyond Lithium. "Having been a stockbroker for over 47 years before retiring in 2022, I am acutely aware of the need to set the right and realistic priorities to maximize the value of our assets while being attentive to shareholder dilution."

Allan Frame commented further: "Exploration remains the top priority for Beyond Lithium in the 2024 program. We plan to advance four priority projects, the Ear Falls Spodumene, the Victory Spodumene, the Cosgrave Lake, and the Wisa Lake Projects through diamond drilling and advanced and detailed mapping and sampling programs to delineate more targets for mechanical stripping and further diamond drilling. We have already submitted two exploration permit applications to the Ministry of Mines in Ontario for stripping and drilling activities and these applications have now entered the 30 days public review and period. As we continue to uncover and discover additional new spodumene mineralization at different projects in the upcoming exploration programs, we expect Beyond Lithium's portfolio of projects in Ontario to include both early to intermediate staged projects by the end of the year. Concurrently, we are actively discussing with different interested parties for our other promising lithium projects for potential Joint Ventures and Option opportunities. We believe our lithium portfolio is well positioned to take full advantage and be ahead when the market turns around."

Lawrence Tsang, VP Exploration of Beyond Lithium, stated, "Despite the current global market conditions, the long-term demand for critical minerals projects to develop remains a crucial part for the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy of "Powering the Green". Beyond Lithium will focus its exploration in 2024 on four priority projects: the Ear Falls Spodumene, the Victory Spodumene, the Cosgrave Lake, and the Wisa Lake Projects. We will also concurrently continue to evaluate other promising lithium projects situated in other prolific lithium districts like in the Superb Lake District, the Gathering Lake District, the Case Lake District, and the Mavis Lake District." 

Lawrence added, "Our exploration program will continue to rely strongly on the field collected geological data 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 Ear Falls and Victory 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, and (iii) to discover new spodumene-bearing pegmatites at Cosgrave Lake and Wisa Lake.

Projects (Figure 1): 

• the Victory Spodumene Project (16,682 ha) located in the Medicine Lake area near the towns of Vermilion Bay, Dryden, and the city of Kenora with excellent and existing infrastructure and grab samples from multiple spodumene-bearing pegmatites (40-50m wide) assayed up to 5.11% Li2O along a six kilometers long exploration corridor. Initial Channel sampling program will recommence in Spring (May/June). Previous program was not completed due to onset of snow. Initial results of 0.32% Li2O and 162ppm Cs over 13.85 meters with 2.05% over 1.00m are indicative of mineralization throughout the channel with, narrower, higher-grade zones. The results confirm surface observations and emphasize the need for mechanical stripping to reveal more mineralized zones of the pegmatite. 
• the Ear Falls Spodumene Project (20,623 ha) located right outside the town of Ear Falls with excellent and existing infrastructure and reconnaissance test holes outlined extensive lithium and cesium alterations in the pegmatites and the host rocks suggesting the presence of a larger system nearby. This model is also supported by a number of higher fractionated samples than the Wenasaga North Zone's spodumene-bearing pegmatites (up to 4.54% Li2O) that are located along the 13 kilometers long exploration corridor suggesting multiple spodumene zones are yet to be uncovered. 
• the Cosgrave Lake Project (8,993 ha) located in the prolific Georgia Lake District surrounded with a few well-known lithium deposits including Imagine Lithium's Jackpot Lithium Project, Rock Tech Lithium's Georgia Lake Project, Balkan Mining's flagship Gorge Lithium Project. The 2023 exploration program outlined highly fractionated grab samples assayed up to 0.39% Li2O from pegmatite located in the green muscovite zone away from the newly discovered AG Pluton. 
• the Wisa Lake Project (6,666 ha) is located in the southwestern part of Ontario that is positioned along trend of Green Technology Metals Wisa Project and Libra Lithium Corp's Flanders Project. Beyond's 2023 exploration program identified two swarms of pegmatites at the Wisa Lake Project, the eastern pegmatites, and the western pegmatites. The eastern pegmatites strike subparallel to the Green Technology Metals' south pegmatite with grab samples of 6.38% Li2O along a 1.5km length by up to 2km wide trend and the western pegmatites are located 4km north of Libra Lithium's new N-S trending spodumene-bearing pegmatite discovery with grab samples assayed up to 2.86% Li2O. The discovery of beryl, and the presence of low K/Rb ratios and high Ta values at our Wisa Lake project is indicative of highly fractionated LCT pegmatites on both sides of the property. All the factors combined, justify further exploration at this project.

Figure 1: Beyond's Four Primary Projects Map in relation to Existing Infrastructure

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8620/200264_f13769b864f04b52_002full.jpg

Projects Synergies and Infrastructure

The four primary projects, the Ear Falls Spodumene, the Victory 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.

Permitting

In December 2023, Beyond submitted the exploration permit application for the Ear Falls Spodumene and the Victory 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 just entered the public review and comment period of 30 days. The 30-day review and comment period is designed to consult with Aboriginal communities regarding the Exploration Permit Application to ensure the proposed exploration activities and plans have low impacts to the environment and don't adversely affect any treaty rights. During this review and comment period, Beyond will continue to actively communicate with the Ministry and Aboriginal communities to provide them with any necessary documentation.

Joint Ventures & Option Opportunities

Beyond Lithium plans to advance the four primary projects and at the same time dedicates to be a project generator company. Besides the four primary projects, Beyond Lithium has other promising projects located in other active lithium exploration districts including in the Superb Lake District, the Case Lake District, the Gathering Lake District, and the Mavis Lake District. Beyond has been actively involved in a number of Joint Ventures & Option discussions with various interested parties. Beyond will continue to engage in these discussions to strive to minimize dilution and to maximize shareholder values through Joint Ventures & Option partnerships. 

Projects Option Status

Based on the results of the 2023 exploration program, Beyond Lithium will terminate the option of 15 projects due to the combination of limited accessibility, unfavourable local geological setting for lithium-cesium-tantalum ("LCT") pegmatites, and the lack of elevated background geochemical signature associated with LCT pegmatites (Table 1). Beyond Lithium is also working with Bounty Gold and Last Resort to amend terms on additional projects that we believe still have potential for new discoveries while continuing to minimize hard dollar expenditures. 

Jace Angell of Last Resort remarked, "We look 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. 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."

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