Lepidico Ltd. announced that Front End Engineering & Design (FEED) for the Phase 1 chemical plant is now scheduled to complete in November 2022. These Stage 1 works under the Engineering Procurement & Construction Management (EPCM) contract with Lycopodium Minerals Pty Ltd. (Lycopodium) are substantially advanced with multiple opportunities identified to optimise procurement based on local UAE sourcing and further refine the design. Recent Lepidico executive appointees, Roland Wells and Hans Daniels, are working collaboratively with Lycopodium to integrate these efficiencies and enhancements into the FEED. The enormous oil, gas and petrochemicals industries in the UAE are supported by extensive local manufacturing and global sourcing capabilities, which are now being embedded into the Phase 1 chemical plant procurement strategy. The control estimate and associated construction schedule should benefit from favouring regionally sourced materials and equipment, which are expected to lead to cost efficiencies, a tighter development schedule and reduced delivery risk than would otherwise be achieved. This strategy excludes the major process long-lead equipment. Meanwhile, additional assays have been received from the Resource definition drilling programs at Helikon 4 with further impressive results. Assays of note for the 6 diamond tails include: HRCHD035: 40 m @ 1.15% Li2O, from 23.26 m; HRCHD038: 26 m @ 0.53% Li2O, from 44.46 m; HRCHD034: 6 m @ 0.76% Li2O, from 66.57 m. The objective of the Resource development program, which started in January 2022 is to extend Phase 1 Project operating life from the current 14 years to around 20 years, by upgrading higher-grade zones of Inferred Mineral Resources. The excellent results received led to a further program
of 17 RC holes for 1,487 metres being undertaken at Helikon 4, which completed in August. Logging has revealed that the mineralisation, while attenuating to the west, importantly extends further to the east towards Helikon 3 and Helikon 2. Assays for most of the holes from this latest phase of drilling have recently been received with initial results. Much of the Helikon line east of Helikon 4 has had only limited drilling due to steeper topography. An additional round of infill and closer-spaced drilling is in preparation to test a further 500m of strike along the Helikon pegmatite system, with around 2,000m of drilling planned in October 2022. Work has started on a new Mineral Resource estimate (MRE) for Helikon 4 that incorporates the recent drilling, which is intended to upgrade the current Inferred JORC Code (2012) estimate to predominately Measured and Indicated categories. The new estimate is due to be completed later next month. A preliminary mine plan has been developed for Helikon 4 based on the infill and extensional drill results received and processed to date. The pit optimisation indicates a strip ratio of less than 2 to 1. Consistent with previous advice, the weighted average intercept grade from all the new 2022 drilling is over 0.60% Li2O, versus the Helikon 4 Inferred Resource grade of 0.38% Li2O which bodes well for the new MRE. A new mine plan and schedule will be generated following completion of the updated MRE, with the objective of developing a whole of Project economic update in November that will also include the FEED results for both the concentrator in Namibia and Abu Dhabi chemical plant.