University of Manitoba

7 June 2022, Snow Lake, Canada: Snow Lake Resources Ltd., d/b/a Snow Lake Lithium Ltd.  (Nasdaq:LITM) (“Snow Lake Lithium”, or the “Company”) and the University of Manitoba are collaborating to strengthen the understanding of the lithium deposits in Snow Lake and support the development of a framework to help shape Canada’s future minerals and metals strategy.

With demand for electric vehicles growing rapidly, the global automotive and energy storage industries will be competing to access raw materials, especially lithium, which are a crucial component of batteries. As a global mining powerhouse, Canada is perfectly placed to meet this increasing global demand for critical minerals such as lithium.

Led by Dr Mostafa Fayek from the University’s Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources, the two-year research project between Snow Lake Lithium and the University of Manitoba will provide considerable insights into the Company’s critical mineral inventory and most effective exploration strategies to extract lithium from the Company’s Thompson Brothers’ site in the future.

Philip Gross, Chief Executive Snow Lake Lithium said, “We are delighted to be collaborating with world-class academics and students from the University of Manitoba and leveraging their extensive experience in this area. The research will provide us with significant information about the mineralogy across our site which, we believe will have a meaningful impact upon the development of our future operations to ensure domestic supply chain and energy security for the North American electrified vehicle industry.”

“We are looking forward to building a strong relationship with the University over the coming years and, alongside this research project, we are exploring opportunities to create a joint analysis laboratory to reduce the time needed to complete both exploration and production analysis in the future.”   

Dr Mostafa Fayek, from the University’s Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources, said, “This exciting project gives our students the opportunity to gain real world experience alongside Snow Lake Lithium’s experienced geologists. We hope that that our research will deliver significant information about the mineral inventory as well as identify a geochemical fingerprint for the lithium-rich pegmatites found across Snow Lake Lithium’s site which will help Canada establish its position at the forefront of lithium mining.”

Based in Manitoba, Canada, Snow Lake Lithium is developing the world’s first all-electric Lithium mine to enable domestic supply of this critical resource to the North America electric vehicle industry.

Snow Lake Lithium is ideally located to serve the North American automotive industry with access to the US rail network via the Artic Gateway railway, which reduces transportation from thousands of miles by road and boat to just several hundred by train.

Snow Lake Lithium’s 55,000-acre site is expected to produce 160,000 tonnes of 6% lithium spodumene a year over a 10-year period. Currently, Snow Lake Lithium has explored around 1% of its site and is confident that further exploration will increase estimates over the course of the next year. Snow Lake Lithium’s mine will be operated by almost 100% renewable, hydroelectric power to ensure the most sustainable manufacturing approach.

Over the coming months, Snow Lake Lithium will continue its engineering evaluation and drilling programme across its Thompson Brothers Lithium Project site, with the expectation that mining operations will transition to commercial production in late 2024.