Vulcan Energy Resources: Growth and diversification of the portfolio with an Italian permit

Growth and diversification of Zero Carbon Lithium™ development portfolio

New prospective permit in Italy for the sustainable development of lithium

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ASX release January 24, 2022

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useVulcan Energy Resources Limited (Vulcan; ASX: VUL, the Company) aims to become the world’s first integrated producer of lithium and renewable energy with a net zero carbon footprint. Vulcan’s unique Zero Carbon Lithium™ project aims to produce both renewable geothermal energy and lithium hydroxide for electric vehicles, from the same deep brine source in the Upper Rhine Valley, in Germany.

geothermal yielded two “hot brine” samples that contained historically high mean brine lithium contents (1976) of 350 and 380 mg/l Li.

• Vulcan considers the area to have potential for the sustainable development of lithium battery chemicals in line with its zero carbon lithium™ given the high heat and lithium contents recorded in the brine and the encouraging flow rates.

• Vulcan’s in-house geological team in Germany will work with Italian geologists and local stakeholders to gather and evaluate historical data, verify lithium content and evaluate brine for potential lithium project development. If successful, the Cesano project could provide a strategic and sustainable source of lithium in Italy for the European battery and automotive market, and

Vulcan’s Managing Director, Dr Francis Wedin, said: “Vulcan aims to increase future supply of our sustainable lithium product in response to significant customer demand. By growing and diversifying our project development portfolio – an initiative we call internally “Project Rollo” – we ultimately aim to

Fordevelop a global Zero Carbon Lithium sector™ an activity centered on Europe, and to become a major producer

renewable energy and sustainable lithium for electric vehicles. Ultimately, we aim to leverage our vast experience in extracting lithium from heated brines to have a significant decarbonization effect on global electric vehicle supply chains and, in doing so, create value for stakeholders.

“After extensive geological examination, we have identified an area in Italy with positive flow, historical lithium content and reservoir temperature indications that may be conducive to Vulcan’s unique method of using renewable heat to drive the lithium processing, with a zero net carbon footprint, for the European electric vehicle market We will work with local partners to further determine the region’s potential and determine next steps.

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106 A

Figure 1: Location of A) Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium Project in the Upper Rhine Valley, Germany, relative to B) the newly granted research permit in Italy.

The Cesano exploration permit is located in the Cesano geothermal field, which was discovered in For1974, and is about 20 km northwest of the capital Rome. In 1975, a “hot brine” was discovered in a single geothermal well (Cesano 1) at a depth of about 1,390 m below the surface by ENEL. Two hot brine samples gave historical lithium contents of 350 and 380 mg/L Li in filtered and unfiltered brine (Calamai et al, 1976). Historic results represent one of the highest global lithium counts

grades recorded in a geothermal confined brine aquifer.

The geothermal field of Cesano is located in the volcanic region of Monti Sabatini. Several deep wells (1,400 to 3,000 m) have been drilled in the geothermal field and the deep brine has not yet been tested or publicly documented for its lithium content. The Baccano caldera formed on a high structural carbonate with a Quaternary volcanic cover, inside a large graben that developed from the Upper Miocene, and is characterized by a strong thermal anomaly (Funiciello et al , 1979). The Cesano 1 well was drilled at the southern edge of the Baccano caldera, correlated with a high gravity anomaly and a thermo-metamorphic halo in the Lower Jurassic carbonate rocks of the Umbria-Marche sedimentary basin (Petracchini et al., 2015 ).

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aloneThe Cesano 1 well would have been tested at more than “Throughput of 250 tonnes/h and approximately 50 tonnes/h of expansion steam, at a discharge pressure of 12-16kg/cm2g“. On the date of the brine sample, the “the temperature at the base of the well, under conditions far from thermal equilibrium, was 210°C, but it was thought that the base temperature in the aquifer probably exceeded 300°C(Calamai et al, 1976).

The geothermal reservoir of the Cesano field is found in pelagic and shallow fractured carbonate rocks in the lower parts of the Upper Triassic to Paleogene Umbria-Marche sequence. The Cesano geothermal fluid is composed of brine with salinities up to 350,000 mg/L and rich in sodium and potassium chloride (Petracchini and Scrocca, 2015).

personal useFigure 2: Average composition of the brine from the Cesano 001 well (Calamai et al, 1976)

Based on historical geochemical values ​​from Calamai et al. (1976), a study by Pauwels et al (1989) concluded that the geothermal field of Cesano “has very favorable characteristics for the production of lithium“. A later study (Pauwels et al, 1990) used historical geochemical data to equate aluminate adsorption tests on reconstituted Cesano brine and concluded that “the results are very encouraging for the recovery of Li from these fluids without any prior treatment. Very high Li recovery rates are achieved in (a) minutes…”. Competent Person and Vulcan have not verified the experimental work and do not consider the information to be current metallurgical results.

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staffFigure 3: Exploration license map of the Cesano permit, Italy, showing the location of historically drilled wells, “Cesano 001, 002, 006, 007, 008”, within the license permit area.

The Vulcan team noted some potential future challenges with the development of lithium mining at Cesano, including structural complexity and the presence of large amounts of dissolved H2S. The structural complexity could be better understood with a 3D study and the attenuation of H2S in a closed-loop system is understood and standard practice at other brine and geothermal plants around the world.

While there has recently been a moratorium on geothermal renewable energy exploration (but not lithium exploration) in the Cesano area, a recent study by Cinti et al (2018), concluded that “the operation of Forthe geothermal resources identified in the volcanic district of …Sabatini (are) very suitable both for the production of electrical energy and for direct uses which, due to the presence of numerous potential users (municipalities, industrial sites, agricultural infrastructures and tourism), can play an important role in reducing CO2 emissions. “Initially, as a next step, Vulcan plans to conduct surface studies, including CO2 soil gas analysis, to detect open/permeable fluid conduits, as well as an analog surface survey to

define lithological heterogeneity.

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aloneAbout Vulcan

Vulcan aims to become the world’s leading lithium producer with net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Its ZERO CARBON LITHIUM™ project aims to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide chemical from its combined geothermal energy and lithium resource, which is Europe’s largest lithium resource, in Germany. Vulcan’s unique ZERO CARBON LITHIUM™ project aims to produce both renewable geothermal energy and lithium hydroxide from the same deep brine source. In doing so, Vulcan intends to meet the demands of the European lithium market by reducing the high carbon and water footprint of production and total reliance on imports. Vulcan aims to supply the lithium-ion battery and

useelectric vehicle market in Europe, which is the fastest growing in the world. The Vulcan Zero Carbon Lithium™ project has a resource that could satisfy Europe’s needs for the electric vehicle transition, from a source of net zero greenhouse gas emissions, for many years to come. to come.

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