Drilling of Mississippian Unit at Long Canyon No. 2 Delivers 25% Increase in Lithium Assay Results

Anson Resources Limited (ASX: ASN, ASNOC) (Anson or the Company) is pleased to announce that drilling of the targeted Mississippian Units at the Long Canyon No. 2 well at the Paradox Lithium Project (the Project) in Utah, USA, has delivered a 25% increase in lithium grade over previously reported assays at the Project.

Highlights:

• Anson has delivered a 25% increase in Lithium assay grade in its targeted drilling of Mississippian Units at the Long Canyon No. 2 well at its Paradox Lithium Project
• Drilling reported an assay value of 100ppm Lithium and 2,460ppm Bromine compared to minimum 80ppm Li estimated in the Exploration Target
• Confirms the massive, supersaturated brine aquifer in the Mississippian Units are lithium and bromine rich
• Mississippian Units within the Paradox Project do not form part of its current JORC Resource – Anson’s drilling of the Mississippian Units is designed to deliver a significant upgrade of JORC Resource estimate
• The brines are similar to those of the Clastic Zones which are included in the Project’s current Indicated and Inferred JORC Resource
• Anson’s resource expansion drilling program is currently progressing on the Mississippian Units at the high priority Cane Creek 32-1 well
• Historic wells on the western side (‘western strategy”) of the Project area have also been drilled through the Mississippian Units and are to be re-entered for testing

Anson’s recently completed drilling at Long Canyon No. 2, as part of its ongoing resource expansion drilling program at Paradox, delivered an assay value of 100ppm lithium and 2,460ppm bromine.

This grade is 25% higher than the historical lithium value previously recorded at the Paradox Project area - of 80ppm - which was used as the minimum lithium grade for the Mississippian Units in the Project's Exploration Target. This provides a strong indicator of the upside potential in the planned upcoming JORC Resource upgrade at the Project.

The Mississippian Units within the Paradox Project area host a massive brine aquifer with a thickness between 70m and 170m, situated approximately 500m below the Clastic Zones that have been used to calculate the current Indicated and Inferred JORC Resource estimate.

The Mississippian Units across the entire Project area currently form part of the Project’s Exploration Target (See Announcement 6 April 2021), are not included in the current JORC Resource. The targeted drilling into the Mississippian Units in Anson’s ongoing Resource expansion drilling program is designed to deliver a significant JORC Resource upgrade.

The Exploration Target for the Mississippian supersaturated brines is; 1.3Bt – 1.8Bt of brine grading 80 – 140ppm Li and 2,000 – 3,000ppm Br (see ASX announcement April 6, 2021). The exploration target is summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: The Mississippian Units Exploration Target Range with brine & grade variables.

The Exploration Target figure is conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration undertaken on the Project to define a mineral resource for the Mississippian Units. It is uncertain that future exploration will result in a mineral resource.

The Exploration Target was calculated by an independent third party and used data generated during previous oil and gas drilling programs. Several wells within the Project area have been drilled into the Mississippian Units. They included Long Canyon No1, Long Canyon No. 2, Coors USA 1-10LC, White Cloud 1, Big Flat Unit 5 and Mineral Canyon Fed 1–3 (see Figure 1).

In addition to these wells, numerous other wells that abut the project area have been drilled into or through the Mississippian unit. These include holes such as Big Flat 1, 2 and 3, the locations of which are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Plan showing the well locations that drilled into the Mississippian Units at the Paradox Lithium Project.

Background and Rationale

The supersaturated brines in the Mississippian Units have a similar mineral composition to that of the brines of the previously assayed brines of the Paradox Formation clastic zones, used in the Project’s current JORC Resource estimation.

The brines from the Mississippian have previously been tested for salt minerals during historical oil exploration programs. One well, Big Flat 2, was also tested for lithium and bromine. The Big Flat 2 well, which is only 150m east of the western most Paradox Lithium claims, had a recorded assay of 81ppm Li and 2,041ppm Br.

The limestones and dolomites in south-eastern Utah are noted for vuggy (vuggs are cavities, voids or large pores in host rocks) and intracrystalline porosity. It has been noted in some of the well files that drilling tools have dropped in apparent cavernous porosity zones resulting in a loss of circulation in the Mississippian Units. This is an indication of high porosity zones.

Diamond core recently discovered shows fracturing and “vuggs” throughout the limestone and dolomite units, demonstrating the high porosity required for the storage of brine (see Figure 2). This confirms the geophysical logs and porosity calculation (see ASX announcement 17 June, 2019).

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