Essential Metals Limited announced that Current activities expected to pave the way for an updated Mineral Resource and Scoping Study in the December 2022 quarter. Cade Deeps drilling: Three holes completed ~120-130m below the Cade Mineral Resource, suggesting that a southerly plunge could be present instead of the previously interpreted northerly plunge. Thick pegmatite intersections up to 25m in true width were observed in two holes with a ~1m interval of visual spodumene observed in one hole.

All pegmatite drill core will be submitted for lithium assays. The programme is expected to be completed by mid-August. Metallurgical test work: Three composite samples are currently being processed at Nagrom Laboratories.

The composites have been selected from diamond drill core obtained from the March quarter drill programme, which returned outstanding near-surface results, including1: Cade Deposit assay results include: 19.2m @ 1.44% Li2O from 15m (PDD596); 23.7m @ 1.26% Li2O from 3.6m (PDD599); 18.9m @ 1.24% Li2O from 21.1m (PDD600) Davy Deposit assay results include: 31.95m @ 1.24% Li2O from 45.4m (PDD601) and 18.7m @ 1.05% Li2O from 17m (PDD603). An application for a Mining Lease to encompass the Dome North Mineral Resources is being prepared and is expected to be lodged by end-August. The regulatory process will likely take 6-9 months.

The 450km2 Pioneer Dome Project (ESS: 100%) is located in the core of Western Australia's lithium corridor in the Eastern Goldfields, approximately 130km south of Kalgoorlie and 275km north of the Port of Esperance. A Mineral Resource2 of 11.2Mt @ 1.21% Li2O has been defined at `Dome North' in the northern area of the Project. The southern Yilgarn area is recognised as being well-endowed with spodumene deposits, including the Bald Hill Mine, the Mt Marion Mine and the Buldania Project, all of which are located within 80km of the Pioneer Dome Project.

The world-class Greenbushes Deposit, the Mt Holland Mine and the Mt Cattlin Mine are located further west, south-west and south-south-west, respectively. The objective of this drill programme is to test below the Cade Deposit, at a vertical depth of ~100-200m below the lower boundary of the current lithium Resource to better understand the plunge extent and geometry and therefore the potential for extensions to the lithium mineralisation at depth. The first holes were designed to primarily test the interpreted northerly plunge of the thicker and higher grade zone within the Cade deposit.

The observations from the first three holes completed to date suggests that the Cade pegmatite plunges to the south rather than to the north as originally interpreted. To the south of the deposit is the Pioneer Monzogranite, which is interpreted to be the parental source of the Dome North pegmatites. Importantly, the pegmatite intersected in holes PDRCD701 and PDRCD704 appears to be thickening to the south (PDRCD704: ~16m true width; PDRCD701: ~25m true width) and, while no visual spodumene was observed in PDRCD701, the pegmatite is zoned and possibly fractionated with the development of quartz zones.

Spodumene was observed in hole PDRCD704 over a one metre interval at a down-hole depth of 556.1m. All logged pegmatite core will be sampled immediately. Assays are expected to take 10-12 weeks from receipt of the samples.

The number and location of diamond holes planned at Cade Deeps as part of the Dome North drill programme will be reviewed and modified as needed following completion of each hole. The 11-hole program has been designed to test three zones around the Davy deposit and is expected to commence in 2-3 weeks. Three Reverse Circulation (RC) pre-collar holes with diamond core tails (RCD holes) will be drilled ~100m below the lower boundary, down-dip of the current lithium Resource.

A further six RC holes will test the northern strike and two RC holes will test the southern strike of the Davy deposit.