Phase 3 Rhodium Geochemistry Study Completed At River Valley Palladium Project

ROCKPORT - New Age Metals Inc. (NAM) reported the completion of the Rh geochemistry study of the River Valley Palladium Deposit, 100 km east of Sudbury, Ontario. Phase 3 of the Rh geochemistry study collected 552 ¼ HQ core samples from four metallurgical drill holes completed in 2021 within the Dana North, Dana South, Lismer North and Lismer Ridge Zones. This announcement presents new Rh assay data for these 552 samples. These zones are located in the northern 5-km of the 16 km-long River Valley Palladium Deposit. In addition to Rh, the core samples were also assayed for gold (Au), iridium (Ir), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), and ruthenium (Ru) at the Geoscience Laboratories in Sudbury.

The new Rh data covered herein are in to addition to data generated from recent and historical exploration drill core, surface channel samples and grab samples of the River Valley Deposit. Rh is the most valuable platinum group metal (PGM), with recent spot price highs of about US7950/oz Rh, roughly 5 times higher than Pd and 7 times higher than Pt. However, Rh analyses are too costly to be performed on every drill core assay sample. Rh is reported in the current Mineral Resource Estimate for the River Valley Deposit, based on regression analysis of historical drill core and channel sample assay data for the Dana and Lismer Zones.

The purpose of the multi-phase Rh geochemistry study program is three-fold: 1) Investigate Rh grades and distribution trends within the River Valley Deposit. 2) Develop a more robust regression technique to estimate Rh concentrations from Pt grades for future Mineral Resource Estimates. 3) Investigate the potential of Rh as payable metal at River Valley.

In total, 552 samples of mineralized drill core intervals in the four metallurgical holes were selected for Rh assay: 200 from Dana North, 148 from Dana South; 84 from Lismer North, and 120 from Lismer Ridge. Overall, the Rh assays values returned range from 0.0007 g/t to 0.306 g/t Rh.

Thirty-four drill of the core samples returned assays of =0.100 g/t Rh and 113 samples returned assays >0.050 g/t Rh. The highest assay result for Ir is 0.069 g/t and for Ru is 0.039 g/t, also for the samples from the Lismer Ridge Zone.

Statistical analysis indicates that Rh assay values for the remaining River Valley Deposit (>100,000 samples) can be estimated on the basis of measured Pt values through regression analysis. A plot of measured Pt values versus Rh values for the 552 drill core samples assayed at Geoscience Labs and the non-linear regression line with its derived equation. At this stage, non-linear regression models appear to be better than linear regression models for predicting higher Rh values.

In order to progress Rh studies further, subsequent phases of work will take samples of PGE mineralized intervals from additional mineralized zones to establish and confirm the spatial distribution of rhodium, where practical, throughout the River Valley Deposit. Specifically, the mineralized zones selected to be studied next include the Lismer Ridge Zone and the Varley Zone. Rhodium recovery test-work and detailed mineralogical investigations will be included in future metallurgical studies, in order to determine whether Rh could be a payable metal for a potential PGM mining operation at River Valley. Additionally, non-linear regression models will be further investigated for more even more reliable prediction of Rh contents, particularly higher values, where Rh assays are not available.