Defense Metals Obtains High Concentration of Rare Earth Oxides

Defense Metals Corp. announced access to a total of 3.81% rare earth oxides over 117 meters; including 4.87% over 38 meters at Wicheeda. Results from six additional diamond drill holes totaling 879 meters from the Company's 29-hole, 5,349-meter diamond drilling program were completed in the fall of 2021. Drill holes WI21-51 through WI21-56 were drilled at the same location and within the southern portion of the Wicheeda rare earth element (REE) deposit.

Luisa Moreno, President, and Director of Defense Metals said, "A key objective of the 2021 drilling campaign is to upgrade the existing inferred mineral resource to the indicated category. We are pleased that the resource delineation drilling at Wicheeda South has confirmed the extent of high-grade dolomitic carbonate mineralization and is being mined locally. This demonstrates the robustness of our geological model, which will be a key factor in establishing an indicated and ultimately measured mineral resource as we continue to advance the Wicheeda deposit."

The 2,008-hectare Wicheeda REE property is located approximately 80 kilometers northeast of Prince George, British Columbia, accessible by all-weather gravel roads and close to infrastructure, including transmission lines, railroads, and major highways.

The Wicheeda REE project achieved an after-tax net present value (NPV@8%) of US$517 million and an internal rate of return of 18%. A unique advantage of the project is the production of marketable high-grade flotation concentrates. the PEA envisions a 1.8 Mtpa (million tons per year) throughput open pit mining operation with a 1.75:1 (waste: mill feed) stripping rate over a 19-year mine (project) life, producing an average of 25,423 tonnes of rare earth oxides per year. the initial pit stripping rate for Phase 1 is 0.63:1 (waste: mill feed), will rapidly yield higher grade surface mineralization in the first year, and recover $440 million in initial capital within 5 years.

The analytical work was performed by ALS Canada Ltd. in Langley (sample preparation) and Vancouver, BC (ICP-MS fusion), ALS is an ISO-IEC 17025:2017 and ISO 9001:2015 accredited geological analytical laboratory. Drill core samples were crushed at a minimum of 70% pass rate of 2 mm and then 250-gram subsamples were crushed to 85% pass rate of 75 microns. A 0.1-gram sample slurry was then subjected to multi-element ICP-MS analysis by lithium borate fusion to determine individual REE content (ME-MS81h).

Defense Metals Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral deposits containing metals and elements commonly used in the power market, defense industry, national security sector, and green energy technology production, such as rare earth magnets for wind turbines and permanent magnet motors for electric vehicles. The Company owns a 100% interest in the Wicheeda Rare Earth Elements Project located in British Columbia, Canada.

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