Leading Edge Materials Corp. announced that it is ahead of schedule in exploration of its exclusive and 100% owned Bihor Sud license in the Apuseni Mountains of central-western Romania. Previous mining in the license area for commodities other than cobalt and nickel left behind a vast network of galleries opening tens of kilometers of underground exposure.

Verbal reports from miners working in those galleries up to 1997, as well as numerous samples retrieved from gallery waste dumps, indicate significant Co-Ni mineralization left in place ranging from disseminated, percent-grade Co-Ni in dark schist to very high-grade stringers, veins, and pods. The Company's prime target to reopen and explore the old galleries, forms part of the Year 2 license work program established with the Romanian National Agency of Mineral Resources (NAMR). Year 1 (ending May, 2023) foresees chiefly geophysical and mapping work, which has all been completed already with promising results.

Following receipt of the appropriate regulatory environmental and safety approvals, the Company has commenced the process of reopening of Galleries G2, G4, and G7. Galleries G4 and G7 have now been opened and made safe for commencement of planned exploration works. The waste dump situated outside the entrance of G7 has proven most prolific for retrieval of Co-Ni mineralized rocks, and a boulder with very high-grade, vein-style Co-Ni-sulphides was recently recovered from the G2 waste dump.

G4 features Zn-Cu-Pb-Ag mineralization. The first reopened gallery is G7, which was inspected on January 18, 2023 by the Romanian state authority INSEMEX, responsible for mine safety matters and respective permitting. The gallery is in a very good state, which allowed the Company and its consultants to enter behind INSEMEX, so that the present mineralization could be observed and documented.

Observations in G7 highlight Co-Ni mineralization initially 425 m from the mouth of G7 and was observed until 560 m, the end of the current survey. Reconnaissance work beyond 560 m will continue once this section of the gallery is declared safe for access. Due to 30 years of exposure on the gallery walls, the original Co-Ni-minerals were oxidized, easily detectable by their typical pink (Co) and green (Ni) colours.

Disseminated mineralization follows low-dipping foliation in graphitic schists, and in often foliation-parallel high-grade veinlets, accompanied by quartz and carbonate stringers. The thickness of mineralized zones ranges from about 0.5 m to potentially thicker than 2 m, restricted by the height of the gallery. The 135m mineralized sector (425m to 560 m) has numerous niches and one parallel gallery, where Co-Ni mineralization is exposed in several zones following the general NNW-SSE structural trend.

A second center of Co-Ni mineralization was identified in an east-directed cross-cut towards G4. The intersected vein-style and disseminated Co-Ni-zone in the cross cut appears to run parallel to the mineralization observed in G7, but is located about 400 m away. This occurrence was not followed up in the historic works and remains to be outlined in its full extent along strike.