The Badlands Lithium Project (“Badlands”) consists of 54 unpatented claims on Bureau of Land Management land totaling approximately 1,200 acres (485.6 hectares) and lies roughly halfway between the Company’s Gemini and Jackson Wash Lithium projects.
Badlands was staked by Nevada Sunrise in 2022 following the new lithium discovery made by the Company at Gemini and was not announced at the time of its acquisition due to the onset of competitive staking in the Lida Valley. The general topography of the Project is reminiscent of the TLC lithium property in Nye County, which led to a surface investigation by Nevada Sunrise in March 2022. Samples were collected in a reconnaissance prospecting program, from which six outcrop samples were randomly selected for analysis and subsequently returned anomalous values of lithium ranging from 70.0 parts per million (“ppm”) to 165.8 ppm lithium.
About Badlands
The Badlands property is underlain by flat-lying tan-colored beds of weakly lithified bedded clay, silt and gravel. The sediments are primarily composed of air-fall tuffs interbedded with thin-bedded clastic alluvial deposits. Weathering and erosion have sculpted the area into a “badlands”-style topography, featuring eroded ravines, gullies and hoodoos. The maximum exposed thickness of the volcanic ash beds and alluvium is approximately 20 feet (6.1 metres). Drilling will be required to determine the total thickness of the deposits. Judging by the flat dips and weak induration it has been inferred by previous investigations that these deposits of volcanic ash beds and alluvium are Pleistocene-aged or younger. They appear to be dissected playa deposits like those found in the Clayton Valley and other playas in Esmeralda County and Nye County.
Badlands Lithium Project, looking northwest to the Montezuma Range
Exploration Plans for 2023
Nevada Sunrise intends to carry out a more comprehensive sampling program at Badlands in 2023, which may include the use of a “backpack” prospecting drill to collect small-core samples to a depth of several metres from surface. The goal of further work at the Project is to determine if lithium values increase with depth and if so, positive results from the proposed prospecting program could provide the foundation for a systematic conventional drilling program.
Sampling and Analytical QA/QC and Statement of Qualified Person
Surface Sample Collection and Analysis
Outcrop samples described in this new release averaged approximately 0.24 kilograms each. The samples were submitted to American Assay in Reno, NV, and were analyzed utilizing a multi-element ICP-AES method. Specifically, the analytical method involves aqua regia digestion of the sample followed by the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) technique to ionize the sample, and atomic emission spectrometry (AES) to determine elemental concentrations. Duplicates, field blanks, and certified reference standards were inserted at regular intervals in the sample stream to ensure accuracy of the analytical method.
The scientific and technical information contained herein has been reviewed and approved by Robert M. Allender, Jr., CPG, RG, SME and a Qualified Person for Nevada Sunrise as defined in National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.