Toronto, Ontario– – Appia Energy Corp. (CSE: API) (OTCQB: APAAF) (FSE: A0I.F) (FSE: A0I.MU) (FSE: A0I.BE) (the “Company” or “Appia”) is pleased to announce that a field crew has started Phase I exploration activities on the Company’s high-grade rare earth element (“REE“) Alces Lake property, northern Saskatchewan.
Appia has defined 7 high-grade REE occurrences at surface within an area measuring 150 m x 100 m. Surface channel sample highlights include 22.35 wt% total rare earth oxide (“TREO“) over 6.21 m from the Ivan zone (see News Release dated November 8, 2018). Follow-up drilling last summer (2019) intersected 16.06 wt% total rare earth oxide (“TREO“) over 15.55 m, including 49.17 wt% TREO over 3.7 m, both starting within 10 m of surface in diamond drill hole IV-19-012 (see News Release dated September 3, 2019).
Phase I of a two-Phase summer exploration program is designed to discover additional surface and sub-surface high-grade REE occurrences similar to those mentioned above. Details for Phase I include;
Phase I
- regional ground prospecting, mapping and sampling over historic REE occurrences and along two 2 km-long trends with previously identified radiometric showings of interest;
- ground geophysical surveys (audiomagnetotellurics, ground penetrating radar) to attempt to map the REE minerals and structural system beneath the surface in order to prioritize drill targets.
Exploration permits for Phase I have been received. Phase II of the summer exploration program is anticipated to start between late July and early August, and will include;
Phase II
- 2,000 to 3,000 m of diamond drilling following the strike extension of the Wilson, Charles and Ivan zones, and reconnaissance drilling on select regional geological and geophysical targets of interest;
- additional regional ground prospecting, mapping and sampling over areas of interest
- continuing evaluation of the Alces Lake heavy mineral and monazite-xenotime-bearing beach sands (if conditions allow)
The Alces Lake Property encompasses some of the highest-grade total REE mineralization in the world, hosted within a number of surface and near surface occurrences that remain open at depth and along strike. The United States government is actively pursuing critical REE* resources to ensure a domestic REE supply chain becomes established within North America. The Alces Lake project area is 14,334 hectares (35,420 acres) in size, and is 100% owned by Appia.
* Critical rare earth elements are defined here as those that are in short-supply and high-demand for use in permanent magnets and modern electronic applications such as electric vehicles and wind turbines (i.e: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb)).
To ensure safe work conditions are met for the workforce, the Company has developed exploration guidelines that comply with the Saskatchewan Public Health Order (June 19, 2020) and the Public Health Order Respecting the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District (June 13, 2020) in order to maintain social distancing and help prevent the transmission of 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
The technical content in this news release was reviewed and approved by Dr. Irvine R. Annesley, P.Geo. Advisor to Appia’s Board of Directors, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
About Appia
Appia is a Canadian publicly-traded company in the uranium and rare earth element sectors. The Company is currently focusing on delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements (“REE”) and uranium on the Alces Lake property, as well as prospecting for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca Basin on its Loranger, North Wollaston, and Eastside properties. The Company holds the surface rights to exploration for 57,048 hectares (140,968 acres) in Saskatchewan.
The Company also has a 100% interest (subject to a 1% Uranium Production Payment Royalty and a 1% Net Smelter Return Royalty on any precious or base metals payable, provided that the price of uranium is greater than US$130 per pound) in 12,545 hectares (31,000 acres), with rare earth element and uranium deposits over five mineralized zones in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario. The Camp historically produced over 300 million pounds of U3O8 and is the only Canadian camp that has had significant rare earth element (yttrium) production. The deposits are largely unconstrained along strike and down dip.
Appia’s technical team is directed by James Sykes, who has had direct and indirect involvement with over 550 million lbs. U3O8 being discovered in five deposits in the Athabasca Basin.
Appia has 73.8 million common shares outstanding, 89.1 million shares fully diluted.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This News Release contains forward-looking statements which are typically preceded by, followed by or including the words “believes”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “estimates”, “intends”, “plans” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward- looking statements and shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such statements.
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.