Appia drills 7.58 wt% TREO over 8.9 m at Alces Lake

Nov 6, 2019

2019-11-05 11:04 ET – News Release

Mr. Tom Drivas reports

APPIA DISCOVERS A NEW ZONE RETURNING 7.58 WT% TREO OVER 8.9 METRES ON THE CRITICAL RARE EARTH ELEMENT ALCES LAKE PROPERTY

Appia Energy Corp. has released assay results from all 44 diamond drill holes of the completed 2019 summer diamond drilling program on the Alces Lake property, Northern Saskatchewan.

Appia completed 2,042.1 metres (m) in 44 short drill holes, with 40 of those drill holes intersecting the rare earth element (REE) minerals system and 19 of those drill holes intersecting high-grade total rare earth oxides (TREO). Individual drill hole highlights include:

RI-19-001 (Richard zone) — 7.575 weight per cent TREO over 8.9-metre core length starting at 9.8-metre downhole depth in a new discovery between the Wilson and Charles surface zones;
IV-19-012 (Ivan zone) — 16.059 weight per cent TREO over 15.55-metre core length starting at 8.7-metre drill hole depth, including 31.339 weight per cent TREO over 7.9-metre core length starting at 9.7-metre downhole depth, which further includes 49.165 weight per cent TREO over 3.7-metre core length at 9.7-metre downhole depth (previously reported on Sept. 3, 2019);
IV-19-003 (Ivan zone) — 16.100 weight per cent TREO over 11.65-metre core length starting at 10.25-metre downhole depth, including 31.04 weight per cent TREO over 2.7-metre core length starting at 13.3-metre downhole depth (previously reported on July 16, 2019);
IV-19-013 (Ivan zone) — 12.556 weight per cent TREO over 2.05-metre core length at 9.9-metre drill hole depth and 22.457 weight per cent TREO over 1.8-metre core length starting at 22.6-metre downhole depth (previously reported on Sept. 3, 2019);
IV-19-011 (Ivan zone) — 37.576 weight per cent TREO over 1.05-metre core length at 9.85-metre downhole depth (previously reported on Sept. 3, 2019).

True thickness has not been determined for each of the intervals mentioned, including those in the attached table.

The reported high-grade TREO intersections are hosted in one mineral, monazite. Coarse-grained monazite on Alces Lake has the potential for relatively easy metallurgical and extraction processes.

James Sykes, Appia’s vice-president of exploration and development, comments: “The program successfully proved that high-grade REE mineralization continues at depth. This highlights a vast exploration potential for the property since our exploration efforts to date have been focused on a very small area, tested by mostly shallow drilling to less than 50 m depth, in order to understand the geological and structural controls of the system prior to expanding exploration efforts. To support this idea, we applied our working knowledge of the system in our last drill hole(s) (RI-19-001 and RI-19-002) and discovered a new high-grade mineralized body beneath the surface, the Richard zone. The Richard zone is important because i) it proves that our minerals system exploration model works and ii) the Richard zone might connect the Wilson and Charles zones together beneath the surface, which would more than double the surface exposed high-grade mineralized strike length. The Richard zone and those discovered beneath the Ivan zone (IV-19-012 and IV-19-003, for example), remain open along strike. These numerous discoveries reinforce our belief that the system at Alces Lake is larger and far more extensive than we currently know. We look forward to targeting more high-grade REE zones on the rest of the property.”

In the coming weeks, the company will be initiating academic studies with universities in Europe and North America to help better understand the origin(s) and source of the system, in particular the high-grade mineralization, and to help focus next season’s drilling toward a high-grade root zone of the minerals system. A new report from the University of Saskatchewan on preliminary metallurgical processing of high-grade REE mineralization from the Ivan zone is expected by year-end. Concurrently, the company will also continue geological modelling of the characteristics of the system. Starting in the New Year, the company is planning to initiate geophysical modelling of the airborne magnetic and ground gravity data sets in order to define additional targets for the 2020 exploration drill season.

The Alces Lake property encompasses some of the highest-grade total and critical REE mineralization in the world, hosted within numerous surface and near-surface showings to which the depth extent remains unknown. Critical REEs are defined here as those that are in short supply and high demand for use in permanent magnets and modern electronic applications (for example, neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr) and dysprosium (Dy)). The project area is 14,334 hectares (35,420 acres) in size and is 100 per cent owned by Appia.

Appia considers high-grade REE mineralization to be over 1.897 weight per cent TREO, which represents over 75th percentile for global REO deposit grades of advanced-stage projects (excluding the Gakara, Steenkampskraal and Mount Weld CLD deposits). The global REO deposit information was derived from publicly available information as of Jan. 31, 2018, from individual company websites, SEDAR technical report filings and the Technology Metals Research Advanced Rare Earth Projects Index.

All assay results were provided by Saskatchewan Research Council’s (SRC) geoanalytical laboratory, an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E) certified laboratory in Saskatoon, Sask., for multielement and REE analysis.

All analytical results reported herein have passed rigorous internal quality assurance/quality control review and compilation. The technical content in this news release was reviewed and approved by Dr. Irvine R. Annesley, professional geoscientist, adviser to Appia’s board of directors and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Appia Energy Corp.

Appia is a Canadian publicly traded company in the uranium and rare earth element sectors. The company is currently focusing on delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements and uranium on the Alces Lake property, as well as prospecting for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca basin on its Loranger, North Wollaston and Eastside properties. The company holds the surface rights to exploration for 57,048 hectares (140,968 acres) in Saskatchewan.