17 January 2023

Future Metals NL

Farm-In Agreement Over East Kimberley Ni-Cu-PGE Prospects

Highlights

§ Future Metals has more than doubled its exploration position at Panton by securing the right to farm-in to the adjoining and highly prospective Panton North exploration ground, along with the Copernicus North project

§ Right to earn a 70% interest in both tenements

§ Panton North contains an extension of the prospective Panton keel position with anomalous nickel, copper and PGE grades confirmed by historic drilling and soil & rock chip sampling

o Additional intrusion showing coincident Ni-Cu-PGE anomalism in soil samples, and magnetic and electromagnetic ("EM") anomalies with no prior drill testing

o Panton North ground also provides contiguous land holding to the 100% owned Panton PGM-Ni project, providing additional project development flexibility

§ Copernicus North is a highly anomalous Ni-Cu prospect along strike from the historic Copernicus Ni-Cu mine

§ The Company's latest cash position as at 31 December 2022 was $5.79m

Future Metals NL ("Future Metals" or the "Company", ASX | AIM: FME), is pleased to announce it has entered into a Farm-in and Joint Venture Agreement with Octava Minerals Limited's ("Octava") on its wholly owned Panton North and Copernicus North Ni-Cu-(PGE) projects in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Mr Jardee Kininmonth, Managing Director of Future Metals, commented:

"This joint venture farm-in arrangement significantly increases Future Metals' exploration position in the East Kimberley thereby providing further scope, to explore what is highly prospective ground for Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide mineralisation. Panton North and Copernicus North have been subject to only limited, shallow drilling despite compelling geochemical and EM anomalies. There is a significant opportunity to apply modern geophysical techniques, such as those being applied at Future Metals' Panton project to identify high quality targets for economic accumulations of Ni-Cu-PGE sulphides at depth.

"The East Kimberley is a very under-explored part of Western Australia despite the Halls Creek Orogen being prospective for emplacement of Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide deposits. Securing prospective exploration ground enables us to apply our exploration model more widely, increasing the likelihood of making further economic Ni-Cu-PGE discoveries."

Figure 1 | East Kimberley Regional Map

Panton North

The Panton North project (EL5455) contains the Panton North prospect and Panton West prospect, both of which are mineralised ultramafic intrusions.

Rock chip and soil sampling at the Panton North prospect has demonstrated an anomalously mineralised (palladium-platinum-nickel-copper) area of 1.3km x 0.5km. There has been very little prior drilling with just eight (8) shallow holes drilled (~100m depth) at the Panton North prospect by Freeport (1984) and Thundelarra (2002). These holes returned anomalous intervals of PGM's, nickel and copper, over widths of 28-80m, as set out in Table 1 below.

The northern portion of the prospect shows highly anomalous copper geochemistry in soil sampling, which is coincident with strong remnant magnetism, an indicator of pyrrhotite and therefore sulphide mineralisation. This particular area is untested by drilling.

The Panton West prospect is a 1km x 0.3km ultramafic intrusion with surface geochemistry displaying strong palladium, nickel and copper anomalism. Airborne EM flown in 2006 identified a number of conductors along Panton West which are broadly coincident with remnant magnetism anomalies. There has been no historic drilling at Panton West.

Figure 2 | Panton North Project (EL5455)

Figure 3 | Panton West Prospect EM and Geochemical Anomalies

Table 1: Panton North prospect historic intercepts

Table 2: Panton West prospect rock sampling

Copernicus North

The Copernicus North project (EL5459) is located approximately 4km along strike from the Copernicus historical Ni-Cu mine, which hosted a reserve at the commencement of mining of 784,000t @ 1.1% Ni, 0.67% Cu and 0.05% Co¹. This deposit was mined via open pit methods in 2007 to 2008, and again in 2014 to 2016 by Panoramic Resources Limited.

The southern end of the project area hosts the Palamino prospect, which is an 800m long surface Ni-Cu geochemical anomaly (with associated surface gossanous development), hosted by a 2km long ultramafic/pyroxenite intrusive. There has been only limited previous drilling at this prospect which confirmed the presence of pyroxenite-hosted magmatic sulphide mineralisation.

Importantly, the Copernicus mine sulphide mineralisation has been shown to have a shallow north plunge. This shallow northerly plunge to the mineralised system may be replicated at Palamino but has not been previously tested. 

The historic information relating to Panton North and Copernicus North has been extracted directly from Octava's Prospectus and Supplementary Prospectus which is available on the ASX announcement platform dated 14 September 2022. 

Future Metals will provide a detailed summary of the exploration activities completed on both projects and its targeting strategy in due course.

^[1] Source: Copernicus Feasibility Study, Sally Malay Mining Limited, 29 June 2007

Figure 4 | Copernicus North Project (EL5459)

East Kimberley | Halls Creek Orogenic Zone

The Halls Creek Orogen is an orogenic belt which trends north - northeast over a distance of 120km at a width of approximately 45km. Mafic-ultramafic intrusions are confined to the central part of the Halls Creek Orogen and crystallised at depths of between 8-23km in a variety of forms including sheets, basinal forms, funnels, plugs and multi-chambered bodies. A total of 60 intrusions have been recognised. This central part of the Halls Creek Orogen is considered to be highly prospective for magmatic Ni-Cu and PGM mineralisation given it is one of the most extensively mineralised igneous associations in Australia.

Exploration in the region to date has been limited to shallow drilling and airborne geophysical surveys, which have limited ability to discover deeper accumulations of sulphide mineralisation. This is the primary reason behind the limited number of discoveries of economic significance despite its highly prospective geological setting, and large search space. The discoveries of significance are Future Metals' Panton PGM-Ni project, the Savannah Ni-Cu project and the Copernicus Ni-Cu project.

² Source: Hoatson and Blake, 2000

Farm-in and Joint Venture Agreement Terms

Pursuant to the terms of the farm-in arrangement, Future Metals' may earn up to a 70% interest in both the Panton North and Copernicus Projects by sole funding exploration expenditure of $2.0 million over 4 years, with minimum annual cumulative expenditure of:

§    By end of Year 1            $250,000

§    By end of Year 2            $750,000

§    By end of Year 3            $1,250,000

§    By end of Year 4            $2,000,000

Future Metals may withdraw at any time subject to paying the deferred consideration.

Octava will be required to contribute to maintain its 30% interest from the point of a 'decision to mine' or dilute to a 1.5% net smelter royalty ("NSR"). Future will hold a pre-emptive right over the NSR.

Future Metals has the right to apply for a mining lease over a portion of exploration lease for use as part of the development of its adjoining 100% owned Panton PGM-Ni Project.

The joint venture agreement includes customary pre-emptive, drag along and tag along rights.

Future Metals is required to issue 3.5 million share to Octava ($400,000 at $0.114 cents) which will be escrowed for a period of 12 months from their date of issue. Future is then required to make a final payment to Octava of $200,000 in 12 months in cash or shares (at Future Metal's sole election).

The agreement is subject to the following conditions:

§ Completion of financial, legal and technical due diligence by Future Metals on the tenements, to the absolute satisfaction of Future Metals;

§ Future Metals obtaining all necessary shareholder and regulatory approvals required to lawfully complete the matters set out in the farm-in agreement;

§ Future Metals issuing Octava (or its nominee) the upfront consideration; and

§ Octava delivering to Future Metals an executed escrow agreement for the upfront consideration shares.

This announcement has been approved for release by the Board of Future Metals NL.

For further information, please contact:

Competent Person's Statement

The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Results is based on, and fairly represents, information compiled by Mr Shane Hibbird, who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr Hibbird is the Company's Exploration Manager and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity he is undertaking to qualify as a competent person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the "Australasian Code for reporting of Exploration Results, Exploration Targets, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves" (JORC Code). Mr Hibbird consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the matters based upon his information in the form and context in which it appears.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as is forms part of United Kingdom domestic law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended.

Notes to Editors:

About the Panton PGM-Ni Project

The 100% owned Panton PGM-Ni Project is located 60kms north of the town of Halls Creek in the eastern Kimberly region of Western Australia, a tier one mining jurisdiction. The project is located on three granted mining licences and situated just 1km off the Great North Highway which accesses the Port of Wyndham (refer to Figure Five).

PGM-Ni mineralisation occurs within a layered, differentiated mafic-ultramafic intrusion referred to as the Panton intrusive which is a 12km long and 3km wide, south-west plunging synclinal intrusion. PGM mineralisation is hosted within a series of stratiform chromite reefs as well as a surrounding zone of mineralised dunite within the ultramafic package.

Figure Five | Panton PGM Project Location

About Platinum Group Metals (PGMs)

PGMs are a group of six precious metals being Platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), iridium (Ir), osmium (Os), rhodium (Rh), and ruthenium (Ru).

Exceptionally rare, they have similar physical and chemical properties and tend to occur, in varying proportions, together in the same geological deposit. The usefulness of PGMs is determined by their unique and specific shared chemical and physical properties.

PGMs have many desirable properties and as such have a wide variety of applications. Most notably, they are used as autocatalysts (pollution control devices for ICE vehicles), but are also used in jewellery, electronics, hydrogen production / purification and in hydrogen fuel cells.

The unique properties of PGMs help convert harmful exhaust pollutant emissions to harmless compounds, improving air quality and thereby enhancing health and wellbeing.

Appendix 1 | JORC Code (2012) Edition Table 1

Section 1 Sampling Techniques and Data

Section 2 Reporting of Exploration Results