Essential Metals : Pioneer Dome Lithium Project update

onlyASX Code: ESS

Corporate Profile

Shares on issue: 241,545,856

Cash: $9m (30 Sep 2021)

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useKEY PROJECTS LITHIUM Pioneer Dome GOLD Golden Ridge GOLD Juglah Dome

Joint Ventures (ESS %)

2x nickel projects (20-25%)*personal4x gold projects (25-30%)*

* Free c rried to a decision to mine

Corporate Directory

Non-Executive Chairman

Craig McGown

N n-Executive Directors

Paul Payne

Warren Hallam

Managing Director

Timothy Spencer

CFO & Company Secretary

Carl Travaglini

Ex loration Manager

Andrew Dunn

Investor Relations

ForNicholas Read Read C rporate t: [phone]

e: [e-mail]

ABN: 44 103 423 981

t: [phone]

1. [e-mail]

1. essmetals.com.au

Level 3, 46 Ord St

West Perth, WA 6005

Australia

PO Box 1787,

West Perth, WA 6872

Australia

14 January 2022

New lithium targets to be tested by air-core drilling at Dome North as diamond drilling resumes

30-hole/2,320mair-core program to commence next week to test newly identified targets close to existing deposits

HIGHLIGHTS

• Air-coredrilling will follow up on open or unexplained anomalism generated from the August 2021 drill programme at Dome North. This includes testing a 350m wide zone of lithium anomalism in lower saprolite between the Davy and Cade Deposits, as well as testing anomalism along strike to the north-east of the Heller Deposit that is geochemically similar to that at the northern ends of Davy and Cade.
• New drilling contractor procured to complete the 13-hole diamond drilling programme that commenced last Quarter. Drill rig now on-site and on track to complete the programme by mid-February.
• The diamond drill programme is targeting near-surface (oxide/transition) mineralisation at both the Cade and Davy deposits to obtain samples for bulk density measurements and for confirmatory metallurgical test work.
• An environmental baseline survey over the Dome North area has been completed with the final report pending. No particularly sensitive flora or fauna were identified.
• Capital expenditure and operating cost estimates for a nominally sized 1.6Mtpa concentrator plant have been received and will be utilised as part of the Scoping Study planned to commence by mid-year, pending assays from the current drill programmes and the results from further metallurgical test work.

Essential Metals Managing Director, Tim Spencer, said: "The more we learn about Dome North, the more excited we are about its future. While we advance the Dome North Resource in terms of testing its extent and improving its confidence level by in-filldrilling and further metallurgical test work, we are continuing with high-qualityexploration in and around the Resource as well as across our entire 450km2 of Project tenure."

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PIONEER DOME LITHIUM PROJECT

The 450km2 Pioneer Dome Project (ESS: 100%) is located in the core of Western Australia's lithium onlycorridor in the Eastern Goldfields, approximately 130km south of Kalgoorlie and 275km north of the Port of Esperance. A Mineral Resource1 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.

useAIR-CORE DRILL PROGRAMME AT DOME NORTH

In August 2021, 93 slimline Reverse Circulation (RC) holes were drilled, totalling 5,934m, around the existing Dome North spodumene deposits (Figure 1 and Figure 2). Final assay results were announced on 3 November 20212.

No new pegmatites with reportable intersections were discovered by this drilling, however encouraging personalgeochemical results were returned from Heller North (PDRC543 & 44) as well as the 'Davy to Cade' (PDRC571

to PDRC575) areas, both of which required further investigation. For

Figure 1 - Dome North LCT drilling - see legend.

1 Refer to ASX announcement dated 29 September 2020 "Dome North Lithium Project - Resource Upgrade"

2 Refer ASX announcement 3 November 2021- "Dome North lithium drill programme to commence"

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Heller NE

Davy to Cade

Basement Geology

				Drill Legend	Basement Geology
use only				RC drill collars
			RCD drill collars
			AC collars
personalFor
Figure 2 - Dome North drilling (slimline RC holes annotated with hole IDs) with LCT targets on top of the interpreted geology.

An air-core (AC) drill programme comprising 30 holes for ~2,320m will be carried out to test the Heller NE (north-east) and 'Davy to Cade' targets generated from the August 2021 slimline RC programme (Figure 3).

The aim is further test the geochemical anomalies for new spodumene bearing pegmatite that could add to the current Mineral Resource.

-

Figure 3 - Dome North proposed drilling (green circles), surface projection of MRE (magenta outlines) and previous drilling

(see legend) on top of the interpreted geology.

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Figure 4 -Interpretationof drilling results from first traverse ~300m north-eastof Heller. Lithium >50ppm plotted as the dark

blue graph on the left-handside and tantalum as magenta and beryllium as light blue graph on the right.

Projected position of Heller pegmatite

As part of the August 2021 drill programme, two traverses of drilling spaced 300m apart were completed to onlytest the potential north-easternextension of the Heller pegmatite, as well as to follow up on existing rock chip anomalism. Both traverses failed to intersect pegmatite where the strike projection of the Heller pegmatite was anticipated. However, the two easternmost holes of the southern traverse intersected a 2-3mwide pegmatite with anomalous lithium (up to 324ppm), beryllium (up to 108ppm), tantalum (up to 91ppm) and tin

(up to 20ppm) with a potassium-rubidiumratio as low as 13 (Figure 4).

The best opportunity for an economic pegmatite is considered to be along strike from RC holes PDRC543 and PDRC544, either to the south in the ultramafic or to the north in the Black Flag Beds, which is considered a more brittle and more likely host than the ultramafic. The geochemistry results from PDRC543 and PDRC544

useare similar to those intersected beyond the northern economic extents of Davy and Cade.

A total of 12 holes for 960m are planned to test as far north as possible (150m) and 200m south of PDRC543 and PDRC544, to see if a larger spodumene-bearingpegmatite develops beyond the previously intersected pegmatites (Figure 5).

personalFor

Heller NE Target

onlyuse

personalFigure 5 - Existing drilling (collar and traces), planned drilling (light green circles and traces) on top of the 1VD RTP magnetic image.

'Cade to Davy' Target

As part of the August 2021 drill programme, one traverse was drilled between the two known spodumene bearing pegmatites to test beneath transported cover and to determine the extent/source of the regolith hosted lithium anomalism (Figure 6).

The drilling results expanded the >50ppm lithium anomalism to a ~350m wide zone with no observed pegmatites. The relationship of the lithium anomalism to the Cade deposit is unclear (Figure 6), however it might represent a halo to an unrecognised but significantly sized lithium enriched pegmatite (Figure 8). If so, further potential may exist north or south of this drilling.

A total of 18 holes for 1,360m have been planned on two traverses to test for pegmatites beneath the transported cover. For

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