Piedmont Lithium Inc. Enters into Definitive Agreements with Sokoman Minerals Corp. and Benton Resources Inc. to Acquire an Interest in the Killick Lithium Project

• Piedmont is one of North America's leading lithium companies, with four active lithium projects, including a joint venture with Sayona in Quebec, Canada and an off-take deal with Atlantic Lithium in Ghana

• Piedmont has vast technical and geological knowledge in similar geology to that of the Killick pegmatites

• North American Lithium ( 25% Piedmont) successfully restarted production and began delivering commercial shipments of spodumene concentrate in 2023. It is the only major source of new spodumene production expected to come online in North America in the near term. Scheduled Piedmont Offtake Customers are LG Chem & Tesla

• Piedmont is developing lithium hydroxide processing plants in North Carolina and Tennessee

• Sokoman and Benton incorporated Vinland Lithium Inc. (“Vinland“) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Killick Lithium Inc. (“Killick“), into which they transferred the Golden Hope Project

Piedmont Lithium has agreed to pay CAD$2 million for a 19.9% equity interest in Vinland Lithium Inc. with Sokoman Minerals Corp. (40.1%) and Benton Resources Inc. (40.1%). Piedmont also may earn up to a 62.5% equity interest in Killick Lithium Inc., through a staged investment agreement.

Piedmont will also fund ongoing exploration by Sokoman and Benton up to CAD$12 million and make progress payments of Piedmont common shares valued at CAD$10 million.  Sokoman and Benton will retain a 2% NSR on the property. Piedmont will be entitled to 100% marketing rights and a right of first refusal on 100% offtake rights to any lithium concentrate produced by the Project on a life-of-mine basis at competitive commercial rates.

Project Summary

• In May 2021, Sokoman Minerals Corp. and Benton Resources Inc. formed a strategic JV partnership (the “Alliance”) on a 50/50 sharing basis, staking a large district-scale project consisting of nearly 3,200 claims (80,000 hectares) accessed by the Burgeo Highway in southwestern Newfoundland.

• Covers extensions of two major structures linked to significant gold prospects and deposits in southern Newfoundland.

• Rock units and structures on the Property are also related to those associated with new orogenic gold discoveries in central Newfoundland, including Sokoman’s 100%-owned Moosehead Gold Project and New Found Gold’s Queensway Project.

• Area is host to at least two significant gold deposits including the past-producing Hope Brook Gold Mine (First Mining - Big Ridge Gold) and the advanced Cape Ray Project (Matador Mining).

• Property covers the NE extension of Hope Brook structure which cuts rock units correlated with rocks further NE in the central Newfoundland Gold Belt.

• Property extremely underexplored, despite known occurrences of gold, the presence of unsourced till, soil, and stream sediment geochemical anomalies (> 5000 ppb Au), and the first-order commonalities and linkages between southern and central Newfoundland.

• Prospecting in 2021 discovered a swarm of lithium-rich pegmatite dykes, the first ever for Newfoundland – surface grab samples returned up to 2.37% Li2O.

• Phase 1 Winter Drilling Program (5 holes - 1,025 m) returned 0.95% Li2O over 8.40 m from 47.8 m to 56.2 m, including 1.76% Li2O over 0.8 m (see the press release dated March 24, 2022).

• Phase 2 Drilling Program (18 holes – 3,073 m) was completed in 2022. Assay results of 13 out of 18 holes returned significant intersections including a 25 m-thick, spodumene-rich dyke, that carries significant grades (5.50 m at 1.16% Li2O) within a wider intersection of 20.82 m averaging 0.60% Li2O from 46.00 m downhole in drill hole GH-22-15 (see the press release dated October 18, 2022).

Moving forward, a minimum 5,000 m drilling program is nearing completion with 4, 300 m in 30 holes having been completed, focused largely on the Killick Zone, where 2022 drilling returned up to 1.04% Li2O over 15.23 m, including 4.18 m of 1.48% Li2O, and 2.98 m of 1.23% Li2O in GH-22-27 and 9.50 m of 1.08% Li2O in GH-22-26 (see the press release dated May 18, 2023).

Drilling will continue to test the Killick Dyke area plus any new dyke discovered in the ongoing soil geochemical and trenching program along strike to the east of the Kraken Pegmatite Field, where lithium-in-soil geochemical anomalies of similar strength to the Kraken Discovery Dyke area were found, 4 km along strike to the east of any known dykes. An additional 6 holes (500 metres) have been completed at the cesium-rich Hydra Dyke target 10 km northeast of the Killick Dyke. The Hydra Dyke is host to high-grade cesium mineralization, as well as significant lithium, tantalum, and rubidium values.

History

During the summer of 2021 reconnaissance gold exploration program at Golden Hope, the Alliance discovered a swarm of lithium-bearing pegmatite dykes, now named the Kraken Pegmatite Field with two of three initial samples returning grades of 1.95% Li2O and 0.49% Li2O. This is believed to be the first discovery of significant lithium mineralization on the island of Newfoundland. In the fall of 2021, the Alliance conducted a multi-phase prospecting, mapping, and sampling program over a 0.85 km x 2.2 km area and further confirmed this discovery with many assays yielding lithium values greater than 1% Li2O and the best sample grading 2.37% Li2O.

The Alliance completed detailed geological mapping and a high-resolution drone survey that includes imagery, Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) to assist in the mapping and targeting of the dyke system. The Alliance also completed a 5,709 line-km Heliborne High-Resolution Aeromagnetic & Matrix Digital VLF-EM Survey flown by Terraquest Ltd. These surveys will enhance the Alliance’s understanding of the structural/lithological setting and help identify gold-bearing structure extensions, as well as any unrecognized structures including those potentially related to the lithium-bearing pegmatites.

The Kraken Pegmatites are highly evolved, pegmatite swarms similar to the geological environment and setting of other large systems in the Appalachian belt, including the important deposits held by Piedmont Lithium Inc. in the Carolinas, eastern US, as well as in the geologically equivalent Avalonia Project being advanced by Ganfeng Lithium in the Caledonides of Ireland.

On November 17, 2022, the Alliance released the discovery of a high-grade cesium-rich dyke with grab samples assaying up to 1.56% Cs2O (cesium oxide), 0.4% Li2O (lithium oxide), 0.022% Ta2O5 (tantalum oxide), and 0.30% Rb2O (rubidium oxide). This is the first high-grade cesium mineralization recorded on the Island of Newfoundland. The cesium-rich dyke is approximately 5 m – 6 m wide and has been traced for approximately 100 m along strike to where it disappears under overburden in both directions. The dyke is located approximately 12 km northeast of the Kraken lithium discovery.

Follow-up channel sampling returned a 1.2 m channel sample averaging 8.76% Cs2O, 0.41% Li2O, 0.025% Ta2O5, and 0.33% Rb2O (see the press release dated December 1, 2022). Results from the full suite of samples, which include additional high-grade cesium values, as well as significant values in lithium, rubidium, and tantalum, are summarized below.

Hydra Dyke – 2022 Channel Sampling Highlights

1. – 2.00 m @ 0.457% Cs2O, 0.156% Li2O, 0.023% Ta2O5, and 0.17% Rb2O

2. – 1.20 m @ 0.854% Cs2O, 0.157% Li2O, 0.021% Ta2O5, and 0.30% Rb2O
   incl. 0.40 m @ 1.94% Cs2O, 0.081% Li2O, 0.025% Ta2O5, and 0.08% Rb2O

3. – 4.00 m @ 0.834% Cs2O, 0.117% Li2O, 0.013% Ta2O5, and 0.12% Rb2O
   incl. 0.50 m @ 5.13% Cs2O, 0.258% Li2O, 0.007% Ta2O5, and 0.21% Rb2O

4. – 1.70 m @ 0.264% Cs2O, 0.095% Li2O, 0.022% Ta2O5, and 0.073% Rb2O

5. – 1.20 m @ 8.76% Cs2O, 0.405% Li2O, 0.025% Ta2O5, and 0.33% Rb2O
   *incl. 0.40 m @ 13.57% Cs2O, 0.316% Li2O, 0.012% Ta2O5, and 0.38% Rb2O
   *previously released

Recent prospecting results include a 1.29% Li2O grab sample (Killick Zone) from what is believed to be the westward extension of the East Dyke 100 m west of current drilling (see the press release dated October 18, 2022). The East Dyke prospect is located less than a kilometre east of the Kraken Pegmatite Dyke Swarm. Three holes, GH-22-25 to GH-22-27 were drilled on the new Killick discovery, intersecting multiple, near surface, spodumene-bearing dykes with GH-22-25 intersecting eight pegmatite dykes ranging from 0.8 m to 11.2 m thick (drilled thickness; true thickness uncertain at this time) with spodumene noted over an 8.8 m interval. Hole GH-22-26, drilled 35 m behind GH-22-25, also cut multiple spodumene-bearing dykes with drilled thicknesses ranging from 0.8 m to 10.5 m, with spodumene noted over the entire 10.5 m section. Hole GH-22-27, drilled along strike 30 m to the north of holes 25 and 26, cut two pegmatite dyke zones of 14.2 m and 2.95 m thick with spodumene noted over 12.83 m of the 14.2 m interval and the entire length of the 2.95 m interval.

At the Kraken Pegmatite Dyke Swarm, eight (8) more holes were drilled to test the main Kraken Discovery Dyke and westward along trend to test sub-crop and surface mineralization. Most holes encountered spodumene-bearing pegmatite dykes ranging from 0.5 m – 5.25 m thick including Hole GH-22-28, which intersected three dyke zones with intersections of 2.12 m to 10.97 m core length and Hole GH-22-35, a 25 m undercut south of the discovery hole, GH-22-01, intersected several pegmatite dyke zones including a 5.25 m spodumene-bearing dyke. At Kraken West, drilling tested an area of sub-crop mineralization however the bedrock source remains unidentified and a high-priority target.

Results from a soil geochemistry program, 3.5 km to 5.2 km east of the Kraken Discovery Dyke, have outlined highly anomalous lithium and tantalum anomalies located along strike. These high-priority targets will be investigated.

Moving forward, a minimum 5,000 m drilling program is underway with 1,400 m in ten holes having been completed on the 50/50 Golden Hope Joint Venture (GHJV) targeting lithium and other critical metals. Drilling has focused on the Killick Dyke zone.

The Alliance has received the first batch of soil sampling results from the Hydra area which shows a significant lithium/tantalum anomaly (5 to 996 ppm Li; 5 to 141 ppm Ta) in the vicinity of the Hydra Dyke. The soil survey is continuing, using 500 m spaced lines to cover the 10 km gap between the Killick and Hydra fields crossing the favourable dyke-bearing corridor.