Next Steps For Ongoing Metallurgical Testwork At Augustus Lithium Property

VANCOUVER - First Energy Metals Ltd. has received an update from SGS Canada Inc. in Lakefield, Ontario, Canada regarding progress and the next steps to be taken for the ongoing metallurgical testwork on the Augustus Lithium Property. The head sample being used for the testwork assayed 1.46 percent lithium oxide (Li2O).

The following are the highlights of the metallurgical testwork steps: 1) The head sample assayed 0.68% Li (or 1.46% Li2O), with < 0.01% total sulphur (S).  An ICP multi-element scan and XRD on a head sample were still pending. 2) Heavy liquid separation (HLS) testing showed favorable potential of using dense media separation (DMS) to produce >6% Li2O concentrates at specific gravity (SG) of 2.90 and above, at ~32% global lithium recovery, or 40% stage recovery. However, it was noted that the iron content in the spodumene concentrate was high, at 1.40% iron oxide (Fe2O3). Magnetic separation will be attempted to recover this iron. 3) The laboratory is requested to proceed to DMS operations with a 1st pass stage at an SG of 2.65 to remove major silicate gangue minerals followed by a 2nd pass stage on the 1st pass floats at an SG of 2.90 to produce spodumene concentrate. The DMS concentrate will be split into 2 or 3 fractions to attempt to reject iron through magnetic separation and produce a final spodumene concentrate targeting >6% Li2O and < 1% Fe2O3 assays. The DMS middlings plus the DMS -0.5 mm fines will be combined for flotation testing and QEMSCAN analysis. 4) The DMS operation if successful can result in lower operating costs for the project at the production stage.