Bonnie Claire Project
“The US currently produces 2% of its required lithium. As the demand increases, a domestic source is required.”
– Powermag.com, Nov. 2020
very large project area
(74.1 km2; 28.6 mi2)
Lithium Carbonate Equivalent*
High lithium grades returned from drill results
Source: “Preliminary Economic Assessment NI 43-101 Technical Report, Bonnie Claire Lithium Project, Nye County, Nevada” (Effective date of August 20, 2021, and Issue date of September 23, 2021). The Qualified Person for the mineral resource estimate is Terre Lane of Global Resource Engineering Ltd., of Denver, CO, USA. The estimate is based on an assumed lithium price of 13,400 $/tonne Li2C03, a cut-off grade of 700 ppm Li, and Li2C03 to lithium ratio of 5.323. The borehole constraint assumes a 68% mining recovery and 5% dilution. Numbers have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate and may not sum due to rounding. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves. The technical report is filed, as required by NI 43-101, on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.”
"The project has the potential to be a major supplier of lithium products..."
– NI 43-101 PEA report, 2021
Nevada Lithium owns 50% of the Bonnie Claire Lithium Project, which has the potential to be one of the next generation of American lithium mines, and one of the first to produce from lithium-hosted sediments.
This domestic project in Nevada covers an area 1.25x the size of Manhattan Island. Bonnie Claire is an hour’s drive from Albemarle’s Silver Peak Lithium operations.
Bonnie Claire hosts significant lithium potential from lithium-bearing sediments and is one of the largest lithium deposits in North America. Further, large portions of the project remain to be explored, including lithium brine targets.
Bonnie Claire’s sediment-hosted mineralization is potentially a key advantage over other projects in Nevada. Unlike Bonnie Claire, much of the lithium in Nevada is hosted in clays, which may be more difficult and costly to process.
Our next phase of drilling at Bonnie Claire will be designed to further delineate and upgrade current inferred resources to the indicated category, while also further evaluating the Project’s potential economic viability.
*Source: “Preliminary Economic Assessment NI 43-101 Technical Report, Bonnie Claire Lithium Project, Nye County, Nevada” (Effective date of August 20, 2021, and Issue date of September 23, 2021). The Qualified Person for the mineral resource estimate is Terre Lane of Global Resource Engineering Ltd., of Denver, CO, USA. The Mineral Resource estimate, based on borehole mining methods, is 3,407.3 Mt at 1,013 ppm Li (inferred) for 18.372 Mt of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE). The estimate is based on an assumed lithium price of 13,400 $/tonne Li2C03, a cut-off grade of 700 ppm Li, and Li2C03 to lithium ratio of 5.323. The borehole constraint assumes a 68% mining recovery and 5% dilution. Numbers have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate and may not sum due to rounding. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The technical report is filed, as required by NI 43-101, on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.”
The technical information on this page have been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the Company by Mr. Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company and Qualified Person.
Nevada is becoming the center of the US domestic lithium supply.
Bonnie Claire Project
18.37 Mt Lithium Carbonate Equivalent*
Tesla Gigafactory
Growing local lithium demand [1]
Silver Peak Mine
Only current US lithium production [2]
Thacker Pass
One of the largest known lithium resources in the US [3]
Our core asset is a 50% earn-in interest in the highly prospective Bonnie Claire lithium project. Nevada Lithium Resources currently owns 20% of the project.
This domestic project in Nevada covers an area 1.25x the size of Manhattan Island. Bonnie Claire is an hour’s drive from Albemarle’s Silver Peak Lithium operations.
Bonnie Claire hosts significant lithium potential from lithium-bearing sediments and is one of the largest lithium deposits in North America. Further, large portions of the project remain to be explored, including lithium brine targets.
Bonnie Claire’s sediment-hosted mineralization is potentially a key advantage over other projects in Nevada. Unlike Bonnie Claire, much of the lithium in Nevada is hosted in clays, which may be more difficult and costly to process.
Our next phase of drilling at Bonnie Claire will be designed to further delineate and upgrade current inferred resources to the indicated category, while also further evaluating the Project’s potential economic viability.
*Source: “Preliminary Economic Assessment NI 43-101 Technical Report, Bonnie Claire Lithium Project, Nye County, Nevada” (Effective date of August 20, 2021, and Issue date of September 23, 2021). The Qualified Person for the mineral resource estimate is Terre Lane of Global Resource Engineering Ltd., of Denver, CO, USA. The Mineral Resource estimate, based on borehole mining methods, is 3,407.3 Mt at 1,013 ppm Li (inferred) for 18.372 Mt of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE). The estimate is based on an assumed lithium price of 13,400 $/tonne Li2C03, a cut-off grade of 700 ppm Li, and Li2C03 to lithium ratio of 5.323. The borehole constraint assumes a 68% mining recovery and 5% dilution. Numbers have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate and may not sum due to rounding. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The technical report is filed, as required by NI 43-101, on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.”
The technical information on this page have been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the Company by Mr. Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company and Qualified Person.
Nevada is becoming the center of the US domestic lithium supply.
Bonnie Claire Project
18.37 Mt Lithium Carbonate Equivalent*
Tesla Gigafactory
Growing local lithium demand [1]
Silver Peak Mine
Only current US lithium production [2]
Thacker Pass
One of the largest known lithium resources in the US [3]
Location
Nye County, Nevada
Claims
915 placer claims
Total Area
18,300 acres (74.1 km2; 28.6 mi2)
Ownership
50% Nevada Lithium / 50% Iconic Minerals Ltd.
Resource Estimate
18.37 Mt Lithium Carbonate Equivalent*
Infrastructure
Excellent infrastructure, including year-round access by highways and paved roads. Power adjacent to the property, with equipment and labor in nearby mining towns.
Work Program
Our next phase of drilling at Bonnie Claire will be designed to further delineate and upgrade current inferred resources to the indicated category, while also further evaluating the Project’s potential economic viability.
*Source: “Preliminary Economic Assessment NI 43-101 Technical Report, Bonnie Claire Lithium Project, Nye County, Nevada” (Effective date of August 20, 2021, and Issue date of September 23, 2021). The Qualified Person for the mineral resource estimate is Terre Lane of Global Resource Engineering Ltd., of Denver, CO, USA. The Mineral Resource estimate, based on borehole mining methods, is 3,407.3 Mt at 1,013 ppm Li (inferred) for 18.372 Mt of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE). The estimate is based on an assumed lithium price of 13,400 $/tonne Li2C03, a cut-off grade of 700 ppm Li, and Li2C03 to lithium ratio of 5.323. The borehole constraint assumes a 68% mining recovery and 5% dilution. Numbers have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate and may not sum due to rounding. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The technical report is filed, as required by NI 43-101, on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.”
The technical information on this page have been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the Company by Mr. Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company and Qualified Person.
The Lithium Carbonate Equivalent calculation of 18.37 Mt is based on the Mineral Resource Estimate as detailed in the Technical Report on the Bonnie Claire Project, Effective Date August 20, 2021, completed in accordance with NI 43-101*.
Bonnie Claire Deposit Mineral Resource Estimate*
*Source: “Preliminary Economic Assessment NI 43-101 Technical Report, Bonnie Claire Lithium Project, Nye County, Nevada” (Effective date of August 20, 2021, and Issue date of September 23, 2021). The Qualified Person for the mineral resource estimate is Terre Lane of Global Resource Engineering Ltd., of Denver, CO, USA. The estimate is based on an assumed lithium price of 13,400 $/tonne Li2C03, a cut-off grade of 700 ppm Li, and Li2C03 to lithium ratio of 5.323. The borehole constraint assumes a 68% mining recovery and 5% dilution. Numbers have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate and may not sum due to rounding. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves. The technical report is filed, as required by NI 43-101, on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.”
The technical information on this page have been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the Company by Mr. Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company and Qualified Person.
Easy Access
Year-round via US Highway 95 & asphalt roads
Power
Property is adjacent to existing power lines, potential to use alternative energy sources is very strong
Equipment & Labor
Close to towns that service Nevada’s mining industry
49%
Silver Peak Mine
Growing Local Demand
Lithium Projects
Nevada is consistently ranked among the world’s top mining districts for multiple reasons:
- Mining is the state’s largest export industry[5]
- Very mining-friendly bureaucracy
- Well understood permitting processes
- Favorable industry tax rate[6]
- World-class mining infrastructure & experienced workforce throughout the state
- Largest mining program in the US with 49% of active BLM mining claims[1]
- Strong ethic toward effective & successful reclamation[1]
Nevada may become the epicenter of America’s green energy revolution. Lithium exploration and production in the state actively targets both traditional brine sources and emerging new types of clay and sedimentary lithium projects.
About 60 km (37 mi) northwest of our Bonnie Claire Project, industry giant Albemarle has its Silver Peak mine in Clayton Valley. Silver Peak has been producing lithium since the 1960s and currently represents the only lithium production in the US.[2]
In Q1 2021, Albemarle announced plans to invest US$30-50M to double Silver Peak’s capacity.[7]
Even Tesla has secured rights to 10,000 acres in the state where it says it intends to produce lithium from clay deposits.[3]
Tesla’s Nevada-based Gigafactory battery manufacturing complex represents significant and growing local demand for lithium and the potential for multi-year offtake agreements as they work toward producing more cars powered by lithium-ion batteries.
To reach their annual target of 20 million cars by 2030, the lithium industry would need to grow more than 8x just to supply Tesla, according to analysts at Citigroup (Financial Times, 2020).[3]
Sources:
- https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/mining-and-minerals/about/nevada
- https://www.albemarle.com/locations/north-america/nevada
- https://www.ft.com/content/b13f316f-ed85-4c5f-b1cf-61b45814b4ee
- https://www.powermag.com/tesla-mining-companies-look-for-advancements-in-lithium-technology/
- https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/nevada
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nevada-remains-one-of-the-best-mining-jurisdictions-on-earth-and-producers-and-explorers-are-thriving-301132833.html
- https://roskill.com/news/lithium-producers-developers-target-lioh-growth-in-north-america/
- https://www.mining.com/lithium-americas-shares-up-on-thacker-pass-approval/
Bonnie Claire is a closed basin near the southwestern margin of the Basin and Range geo-physiographic province of western Nevada. Horst and graben normal faulting is a dominant structural element of the Basin and Range. Bonnie Claire is the lowest-elevation intermediate size playa-filled valley in a series of similar topographic features. It has a playa floor of about 100 square kilometers (km2) that receives surface drainage from an area of about 1,300 km2.
Significant lithium concentrations have been encountered in the alluvial fans and playa within the project area. Elevated lithium was encountered at ground surface and to depths of up to 603.5 meters (the deepest depth of RC-drilling to date). The lithium-bearing sediments occur throughout the multi-layered alluvium. The overall mineralized sedimentary package is laterally and vertically extensive, containing roughly tabular zones of fine-grained sediments grading down to claystone.
The lithium at Bonnie Claire is not found in the mineral crystal lattices (e.g. clays) but rather is present as lithium compounds, like lithium carbonate and lithium salts, within the pore space between the fine grain clay, silt, and sand particles. Although most of the sediment-hosted lithium in the literature occurs in clays, it does not at Bonnie Claire.
*Source: “Preliminary Economic Assessment NI 43-101 Technical Report, Bonnie Claire Lithium Project, Nye County, Nevada” (Effective date of August 20, 2021, and Issue date of September 23, 2021). The technical report is filed, as required by NI 43-101, on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.”
The technical information in the above disclosure has been reviewed and approved by the designated Qualified Person (QP) under National Instrument 43-101, Mr. Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., and Vice President of Exploration for the Company.
The Bonnie Claire Project claims have seen a wide range of exploration activities to date, including*:
- Ground geophysics (MagnetoTelluric, gravity)
- USGS surface evaporate sampling
- Iconic Mineral’s activities commencing in 2015, including surface sampling and RC and core drilling
A total of 330 soil samples have been analyzed, resulting in indications of elevated lithium concentrations on the surface across nearly the entire area sampled.
Bonnie Claire Lithium Grades of Surface Sampling*
The MT data and inversions from a MagnetoTelluric (MT) survey in 2016 suggest a well-developed very low resistivity layer (VLRL) in the subsurface, covering approximately 25 km2 in the southern two-thirds of the Bonnie Claire basin.
Based on the MT survey, the VLRL has the characteristics of a possible lithium brine source and remains to be fully tested.
Bonnie Claire Lithium Project Drill Hole Locations*
Based on drilling exploration campaigns from 2016 to 2020, the subsurface stratigraphy consists of variably interbedded lakebed deposits of sand, silt, clay, mudstone (both calcareous and ash-rich), and claystone. In addition, there are occasional tuffaceous sandstone lenses.
Bonnie Claire Lithium Grade Distribution with Depth in 4 Holes (2016-2018)*
Bonnie Claire Lithium Grade Distribution with Depth in Six Holes drilled in 2020*
The drilling program in 2020 was designed to define shallow lithium mineralization that can be utilized for bulk sampling and to extend the project’s resource to the south. A total of 4 RC holes and 2 DD holes, ranging from 58 to 121 meters (190 to 398 feet), were completed.
Core holes (DD) from the 2020 work program were used in engineering studies to support the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the project.
*Source: “Preliminary Economic Assessment NI 43-101 Technical Report, Bonnie Claire Lithium Project, Nye County, Nevada” (Effective date of August 20, 2021, and Issue date of September 23, 2021). The technical report is filed, as required by NI 43-101, on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.”
Our next phase of work at Bonnie Claire will be designed to further delineate and upgrade current inferred resources to the indicated category through drilling, while also further evaluating the Project’s potential economic viability.
- Permitting for Plan of Operations for more expansive exploration
- Continued exploration and resource drilling
- Ongoing metallurgy
- Bulk sampling for metallurgy
- Ongoing environmental studies
- Hydrogeological studies
- Borehole mining testing
- Prefeasibility Study
The technical information on this page have been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the Company by Mr. Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company and Qualified Person.
The disclosure on this page includes statements containing forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities law (“forward-looking statements”). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as “develop”, “plan”, “continue”, “expect”, “intend”, “project”, “intend”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “potential”, “propose” and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” occur, and on this page include the statements regarding the positioning of the Bonnie Claire Lithium Project in Nevada and with respect to adjacent or proximate mining operations; the growth of lithium mining industry; the economic viability of the Bonnie Claire Lithium Project; and the Company’s ongoing work program, along with its intention further define and develop the Bonnie Claire Lithium Projects resource. Forward-looking statements are only predictions based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could materially affect such forward-looking information are described under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Prospectus, including the schedules attached thereto, that is available on the Company’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.
Sources:
The technical information in this presentation has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the Company by Mr. Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company and Qualified Person.