Norwest Minerals : Marriott Nickel Project update

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT

ASX: NWM

30 March 2022

Norwest's Marriott Nickel Project Development Potential Confirmed

Highlights:

• • The Marriott nickel project (NWM: 100%) is located on a granted mining lease in the centre of Western Australia's Leinster-Laverton nickel region

• • A 2019 mineral resource estimate reported 584,000 tonnes @ 1.18% Ni for 6,900 tonnes of contained Nickel when applying a 0.7% Ni cut-off. The resource estimate is complimented by significant metallurgical testwork

• • Preliminary optimisation & economic work undertaken in 2022 shows mining and toll treatment of the near-surface Marriott nickel resource has potential for recovery of up to ~5,900 tonnes of Nickel, having regard to Marriott's close proximity to a number of operating nickel processing plants

Norwest Minerals Limited ("Norwest" or "the Company") (ASX: NWM) is pleased to announce the Company has commenced updating studies previously undertaken on its 100% owned Marriott nickel project, which is located on a granted mining lease in the centre of Western Australia's Leinster-Laverton nickel region (refer Figure 1).

A block model and mineral resource estimate was previously undertaken for Norwest by resource experts HGMC in 2019, which reported 584,000 tonnes @ 1.18% Ni for 6,900 tonnes of contained Nickel (including 463kt @ 1.2% Ni for 5,600 tonnes of contained Nickel in the indicated category).

Norwest has recently undertaken preliminary economic studies for the mining, trucking, and processing of the near-surface Marriott nickel resource through a plant located within 70 km of the Marriott mining lease. Norwest expects to commence discussions during the June quarter with prospective partners or purchasers to explore near-term opportunities to exploit the Marriott nickel deposit.

Norwest's CEO, Mr. Charles Schaus commented: "The recent jump in nickel prices has significantly lifted the profile of our 100% owned Marriott nickel project to be a very attractive asset having near-term development potential. Norwest will soon commence discussions with parties interested in a toll treatment or purchase type arrangement."

Figure 1 - Marriott Nickel project location map relative to the nickel centers of Leinster, Laverton, and Leonora.

Marriott Nickel Project

The Marriott Project is located 70 kilometres southeast of the nickel mining and processing centre of Leinster, and 80 kilometres from Leonora. The project comprises a 100% interest in a single mining lease (M37/96), owned by Norwest Minerals Limited.

The Marriott nickel resource is defined by 79 vertical diamond drill holes completed in 2007 and no mining of the sub-outcropping deposit has been undertaken to date.

The Marriott deposit lies within a lithological area of predominately mafic and ultramafic rocks. The nickel sulphides mineralisation is hosted within a central equigranular meta-peridotite unit and sits above the basal contact with meta-gabbro. There are three north dipping sub-parallel shoots, with the main lens or central shoot being the most extensive of the three. It is considered that these shoots belong to individual flow units. The nickel sulphides occur as coarse interstitial blebs, or as fine disseminations, flecks and stringers in the equant olivine peridotite and minor amounts in the underlying skeletal peridotite.

The Marriott prospect was named after the prospector who first discovered the gossan in the area. The Mount Clifford area was actively explored by Western Mining Corporation (WMC) from 1969 to 1971 resulting in the discovery of the three mineralised shoots at the prospect. Diamond drilling was undertaken at Marriott during this time by WMC on a 40m x 40m pattern.

Figure 2 - Local geology of the Marriott area

In 2006, Australian Mines Limited (ASX: AUZ) acquired the project and drilled 38 diamond holes and analysed 1- meter samples from potentially mineralised intervals. Samples were analysed by ICP-OES for bulk and trace chemistry and sulphides nickel assay, 529 density determinations were made, and standard QA/QC protocols applied.

The current database includes all the results for all exploration stages including WMC and AUZ drilling. The data is summarized in the Table 1 below.

Table 1 - Summary of Marriott analytical data

There has been no further drilling at the Marriott nickel deposit.

Marriott Nickel Resource Estimate (October 2019)

Hyland Geological and Mining Consultants ("HGMC") was engaged by Norwest in late 2019 to create a new Marriott block model and prepare a nickel resource estimate. The new HGMC resource was completed on the data shown in Table 1.

Modelling of the entire Marriott nickel drill dataset was undertaken by HGMC using MineSight software to construct the block model wireframes and run geostatistical and variography calculations. Kriging algorithms were applied to determine block nickel percentages and resource confidence levels. Details of the nickel resource modelling and resource calculations are included in the JORC tables at the end of this announcement.

The JORC 2012 compliant Mineral Resource for the Marriott Nickel project applying a 0.7% nickel cut-off stands at:

Table 2 - Mineral Resource estimate for the Marriott Nickel project (0.7% Ni cut-off grade)

Classification	Tonnage (kt)	Ni (%)	Contained Ni metal (t)
Indicated	463	1.2	5,600
Inferred	121	1.1	1,300
Total	584	1.18	6,900

Figure 3 - 3D image of near-surface Marriott Nickel deposit.

Previous Metallurgical Test Work

Several metallurgical studies have been undertaken since the discovery of the Marriott deposit. The most recent was comparative flotation testing in 2008 when 14 composite samples from 7 diamond drillholes were prepared by BHP in Leinster and portions forwarded to AMMTEC in Perth. This work determined that sulphide nickel in feed vs sulphide nickel recovery is similar for both data sets with the AMMTECH data predicting 93% of the sulphide nickel recovered by flotation when the feed grade exceeds 0.48% and BHP predicting 87% recovery of sulphide nickel when the feed grade exceeds 0.43%. Both BHP and AMMTECH predict that with lower sulphide nickel feed grades the sulphide nickel recovery will progressively decrease.

Preliminary Economic Work

In March 2022, Orelogy Mine Consulting ("Orelogy") were engaged by Norwest to run preliminary economics for a mine, truck, and process operation considering Marriott's close proximity to a number of operating nickel processing plants. This included toll treating 1 million tonnes for 12 months at a plant approximately 70kms from the project. Orelogy employed the latest pit optimization software using the 2019 HGMC block model and 2022 industry cost figures. The work showed at current nickel prices (~US$13 to US$15 per pound) that Marriott has the potential to recover ~5,900 tonne of nickel.

Norwest is considering its Marriott exploitation options with regards to a partnership or sale arrangement with those parties having processing capabilities or assets in the area.