The Separation Rapids Lithium Deposit (SRLD) is underlain predominantly by a mafic metavolcanic sequence, consisting of flows, tuffs, subordinate epiclastic metasediments and rare iron formation horizons and rhyolites.

The drill tested portion is about 750 m in strike length, of which about 300 m is considerably thicker and thus contains the bulk of the presently defined mineral resource. The further continuation of the pegmatite 450 m to the west is thinner and has a few shallow drill holes. This thin portion, drilled in the past, has been informally referred to as Bob’s Pegmatite.

There is yet further extension of the thinner pegmatite in sparse outcrops to the west for approximately 400 m, referred to normally as the “Western Pegmatite”.

The thickest part of the SRLD, historically referred to as the Big Whopper Pegmatite, forms a large lens-shaped body approximately 400 m long and approximately 70 m at its widest part.

The SRLD narrows to less than 20 m at both its eastern and western ends, and extends along strike in both directions for at least 300 m in the form of relatively narrow tails up to 10 to 15 m wide. Smaller, subparallel, 1 m to 10 m wide, petalite-bearing pegmatite bodies predominantly occur to the northeast, north and northwest of the main SRLD body, with minor occurrences on the southern flank.

The narrower west-southwest-striking zone of petalite pegmatites extends from the main SRLD for a distance of ........

The proposed method of mining is by conventional open pit methods using drilling and blasting, loading with excavators and shovels and hauling with rigid dump trucks. Waste from the pit will initially be composed of overburden and will be dumped in the topsoil stockpile. As the pit is developed harder waste rock will be excavated and will be stored on separate waste dumps.

The Project will be undertaken by contractor-operated equipment and labour. Preproduction waste rock will be used to construct site roads, including the main haul roads and will also be used for the construction of tailing, concentrate and settling basin dam walls.

A conceptual production schedule has been produced using MineSched™ software. The production schedule is based on mining 475,000 t/y of petalite and lepidolite mineralized material. The life of the mine is expected to be 19 years with approximately 6.2 Mt of petalite material at 1.39% Li2O and 2.4 Mt of lepidolite mineralization at 1.41% Li2O mined over the length of the Project.

A conceptual pit design was conducted from the bottom up using the design parameters and the optimum pit shell 15 as a template. The bench to bench face angle of 80 degrees, with a 10 m bench and a 6 m wide safety berm was applied every 20 m. A haul road width of 15 m was used from the pit base (75 level) to the surface, on the assumption that two-way traffic would be operating in the whole of the mine.

Pit Design Parameters: