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SAGUENAY, QUEBEC –
Newsfile Corp. – 2 October 2024 – First Phosphate Corp. (CSE: PHOS) (OTC: FRSPF) (FSE: KD0) (“First Phosphate” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that a peer-reviewed research note has been published by Queen’s University (“Queen’s”) and Université de Québec à Chicoutimi (“UQAC”) entitled:
Igneous Rock Phosphate: ore grades, concentrates and mining operations around the world
Drs. Sandeep Banerjee, Peir K. Pufahl, Sarah Dare
Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, Queen’s University
Département des Sciences Appliquées/LabMaTer, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
September 23, 2024
The study is divided into two main sections and compares igneous phosphate ore bodies around the world, including the Company’s Bégin-Lamarche property, as to their ore grades, beneficiated phosphate concentrate levels and mining operations where applicable.
Comparisons of global igneous ore grades and beneficiated igneous ore
Only a small portion of the worldwide phosphate ore (~10%; Pufahl and Groat, 2017) is supplied from igneous rock from Russia, South Africa, Brazil, and Finland. These igneous phosphate deposits are mostly from the Khibiny Alkalic Igneous Complex (Notholt, 1979) and the Kovdor Phoscorite-Carbonatite Complex (Ivanyuk et al., 2016) from the Kola Peninsula in Russia, the Siilinjärvi Carbonatite Complex in Finland (Decrée et al., 2020), the Phalaborwa (Palabora) Igneous Complex in South Africa (Gómez-Arias et al.2022), and the Alto Paranaíba Alkaline Province in Brazil (Silva et al., 2023) (Fig. 1). These igneous deposits are from silica-undersaturated alkali intrusions and carbonatites.
The average P2O5 contents of phosphate ore from igneous rocks from major deposits in the four major countries (Russia, Finland, South Africa, and Brazil) exhibit significant variations (4.0-17.2 wt.%; Table A2).
The igneous phosphate ore found at First Phosphate’s Bégin-Lamarche property in Quebec, Canada is mostly from nelsonite and oxide-apatite-mafic- ultramafic rocks in massif anorthosite from the Grenville Province (geological province). The P2O5 of the ultramafic rock ranges from 2.6 to 15.0 wt.%. The average P2O5 grading of the phosphate is 6.01%. Testing suggests that the phosphate ore from this deposit could produce a high-quality phosphate concentrate with a P2O5 content of ~40.9 wt.% (Table 1), which is above the global average P2O5 of marketable phosphate concentrates produced from igneous ore from other countries (36.9 wt.%; Table 1).
Table 1. Average P2O5 contents of phosphate ore and concentrates from igneous and sedimentary phosphate rocks from various countries around the world.
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* Prepared and analyzed by SGS-Canada.
Table 2. Average P2O5 contents of igneous phosphate ore from major deposits from four major countries including companies operating the mines, host rocks, and geological provinces
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Comparisons of global igneous phosphate rock mining operations
Depth of ore body, distributions of ore and waste rocks, and grades of ore are the principal factors for selecting open-pit or underground mining operations. Both open-pit and underground mining operations exist for igneous phosphate ore excavation (Geissler et al., 2015). The open-pit mining operations are, however, becoming the primary method of mining over time (Geissler et al., 2015). One of the major Russian igneous phosphate producers, PhosAgro, operates both open-pit and underground mines in the Khibiny Alkaline Igneous Complex, Russia. In the case of the Koashvinsky open-pit mine, the quarry excavation depth reaches up to 960 m, including the upland part, and up to 580 m in a closed contour (Iliashenko, 2022). Another major igneous phosphate producer in Russia, EuroChem, excavated to a depth of 414 m until 2015 at their Kovdorskiy open-pit mine in the Kovdor Ultramafic Alkaline Complex and has a plan to excavate to a depth of 874 m before starting an eventual underground mining operation (Dickson, 2015).
Figure 1. Major igneous complexes supplying igneous phosphate ore worldwide. First Phosphate’s Bégin-Lamarche property in the Grenville Province of Canada is also shown.
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First Phosphate Corp. completed a total of 25,929 m of drilling since February 2024 in three areas of its Bégin-Lamarche property (Mountain zone, Northern zone, and Southern zone). All analyses for the drilling program have been received. Initial results show that one drill hole (BL-24-56) in the Mountain zone intersects a phosphate layer at a depth of 6.5 m from the surface and continues over 92.5 m down the depth with an average P2O5 content of 11.8 wt.%. This layer continues toward the south end of the Mountain zone through to the Northern zone. Multiple phosphate layers were also identified in the Northern zone. The overall strike length of the Northern and Mountain zones is nearly 600 m (First Phosphate press release, April 23, 2024). The presence of the phosphate layer close to the surface (~6.5 m below the surface) in the BL-24-56 drill hole suggests that the area close to this drill hole in the Mountain zone could be a prospective location for starting open-pit mining operation at the Bégin-Lamarche property. This needs to be justified with subsequent proper mine planning study.
Details on First Phosphate’s assets in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec, can be found at:
Details on First Phosphate’s pilot plant for the purification of Quebec igneous anorthosite can be found at:
Details on First Phosphate’s pilot plant for the manufacture of PPA from Quebec igneous phosphate can be found at:
Details on First Phosphate’s strategy for the creation of a fully integrated LFP battery supply chain in North America based on establishing an LFP battery valley in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec can be found at:
First Phosphate believes that Quebec igneous anorthosite phosphate rock is an untapped source of high purity phosphate which can potentially be mined and transformed into large quantities of PPA to service North America’s need for LFP batteries.
Restricted Share Units (“RSUs”) and Shares For Debt (“SFD”)
The Company has also granted 358,000 RSUs of the Company (“RSUs”) to eligible consultants of the Company. The RSUs vest in 2 tranches (50% on November 30, 2024 and 50% on February 28, 2025). The Company has settled $25,000 of debt for accrued amounts owing to an arm’s length service provider through the issuance of 83,334 Common Shares at the deemed price of $0.30 per Common Share. All securities issued are subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the date of issuance.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical disclosure for First Phosphate included in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gilles Laverdière, P.Geo. Mr. Laverdière is Chief Geologist of First Phosphate and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 –
Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”).
For additional information, please contact:
Bennett Kurtz, CFO
bennett@firstphosphate.com
Tel: +1 (416) 200-0657
Investor Relations:
investor@firstphosphate.com
Media Relations:
media@firstphosphate.com
Website:
www.FirstPhosphate.com
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The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
