NEW AGE METALS ANNOUNCES COMMENCMENT OF 15,000 METER WINTER DRILLING PROGRAM ON THE WINNIPEG RIVER-CAT LAKE LITHIUM PROJECT

16th January, 2024,Rockport, Ontario – New Age Metals Inc. (TSX.V: NAM; OTCQB: NMTLF; FSE: P7J.F) (“NAM” or the “Company”) in conjunction with its Farm-in/Joint Venture agreement with Mineral Resources Ltd. (“MinRes”) is pleased to announce that as part of our $7 million 2023/2024 exploration budget it has commenced drilling operations at its Winnipeg River-Cat Lake Lithium project in Southeast Manitoba. The exploration program is being carried out by Platinum Diamond Drilling Inc. (Platinum”) with technical and geological oversight by Axiom Exploration Group Ltd. (“Axiom”).

2024 Drill Program Overview

The 2024 winter drill program has commenced and will comprise up to 15,000 meters of planned exploration drilling. Drilling will be conducted over four of the Company’s properties within the project area including Lithium Two, Bird River, Lithman West, and Lithman East.

The program will focus on high-priority targets identified from the extensive 2023 geochemical and geophysical surveying program. Targeted drilling is aimed at quantifying and expanding the existing spodumene mineralization on the Lithium Two and Bird River properties. Additionally, significant meterage will be allocated to exploration drilling on the Lithman East and West properties that are contiguous with the Tanco Mine property and share similar geological and structural settings. These properties host numerous pegmatites with anomalous geochemical indicators that align with demagnetized trends and dilation zones that could serve as structural conduits for LCT pegmatites.

Chairman and CEO Harry Barr commented; “After extensive project development and planning to get to this point, we are proud to announce the commencement of our most aggressive drill program to date for our Lithium Division. Together with our partners from Mineral Resources and consultants from Axiom, we have systematically developed our understanding of the project area over the last few years and now have well-defined, high priority targets that give us great confidence for this program.  On behalf of New Age Metals, we wish for a safe drill program for our contractors and consultants and look forward to positive results.”

Project Highlights
  • Targeted drilling, aimed at expanding the existing surface spodumene mineralization on the Bird River Lithium and Lithium Two Properties.
  • Exploration drilling of the Rush Lake trend extending 7 km from the Tanco Mine property following up on elevated lithium and cesium in rock samples on the Lithman East Property.
  • Numerous priority geophysical targets on the Lithman West property that correlate with elevated lithium values in MMI samples and could indicate blind LCT-style pegmatites occurring at depth.
  • All drill areas are road accessible and are located within a 25 km radius of the Tanco Mine which has commercially produced tin, tantalum, cesium, lithium, and rubidium since 1969.
  • NAM has an active exploration agreement with the Sagkeeng First Nation and will be working in partnership with Sagkeeng on its winter drilling program.
  • The Company’s exploration activities are being funded by Mineral Resources Limited, a top 5 global lithium producer.

Figure 1: New Age Metals Southeast Manitoba Property Overview

About NAM

New Age Metals is a junior mineral exploration and development company focused on the discovery, exploration, and development of green metal projects in North America. The Company has two divisions: a Platinum Group Element division and a Lithium/Rare Element division.

The PGE Division includes the 100% owned, multi-million-ounce, district-scale River Valley Project, one of North America’s largest undeveloped Platinum Group Element Projects, situated 100 km by road east of Sudbury, Ontario. In addition to River Valley, NAM owns 100% of the Genesis PGE-Cu-Ni Project in Alaska and plans to complete a surface mapping and sampling program in 2023.

The Company’s Lithium Division is one of the largest mineral claim holders in the Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field, where the Company is exploring for hard rock lithium and various rare elements such as tantalum, rubidium, and cesium. Exploration plans for 2024 include up to 15,000 meters of diamond drilling following up on the anomalous results from the geochemical samples collected during summer 2023 and geophysical/structural interpretation. The Company has a partnership with Mineral Resource Limited (MRL, ASX: MIN), a top global lithium producer to explore and develop the Company’s lithium project portfolio in Southern Manitoba. Our philosophy is to be a project generator with the objective of optioning our projects with major and junior mining companies through to production.

 The Company is actively seeking an option/joint venture partner for our newly acquired Northman and South Bay Lithium Projects in northern Manitoba, and its road-accessible Genesis PGE-Cu-Ni Project in Alaska.

Investors are invited to visit the New Age Metals website at www.newagemetals.com where they can review the company and its corporate activities. Any questions or comments can be directed to info@newagemetals.com or Harry Barr at Hbarr@newagemetals.com or Farid Mammadov at faridm@newagemetals.com or call 613 659 2773.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Lynde Guillaume (Senior Geologist, Axiom Exploration Ltd.), an independent consultant of the Company, and a “Qualified Person” as defined by NI 43-101.

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On behalf of the Board of Directors

“Harry Barr”

Harry G. Barr

Chairman and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements: This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results and are based on current expectations or beliefs. For this purpose, statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements include statements in which the Company uses words such as “continue”, “efforts”, “expect”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “confident”, “intend”, “strategy”, “plan”, “will”, “estimate”, “project”, “goal”, “target”, “prospects”, “optimistic” or similar expressions. These statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a variety of important factors, including, among others, the Company’s ability and continuation of efforts to timely and completely make available adequate current public information, additional or different regulatory and legal requirements and restrictions that may be imposed, and other factors as may be discussed in the documents filed by the Company on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), including the most recent reports that identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to review or confirm analysts’ expectations or estimates or to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.