Mr. Gregg Smith of Grounded Lithium reports

GROUNDED LITHIUM ANNOUNCES ROBUST $4.5 MILLION BUDGET FUNDED BY DENISON MINES FOR THE KINDERSLEY LITHIUM PROJECT

Grounded Lithium Corp. has approved a budget for the Kindersley lithium project (KLP) developed in collaboration with Denison Mines Corp., which advances various activities to June, 2025. The budget reflects the estimated costs associated with the next stage of rigorous technical derisking of the KLP expected to conclude with the completion and filing of a prefeasibility study (PFS) for a commercial battery-grade lithium operation.

The budget totals $4.5-million. Pursuant to the earn-in agreement dated Jan. 15, 2024, entered into with Denison earlier this year, the full cost of the budget will be financed by Denison and comprise the following major components:

• Development of National Instrument 43-101 compliant PFS report;
• Further delineation of the resource base through additional drilling and sampling of multiple reservoir layers within the Leduc/Duperow sequence;
• Additional brine production for secure storage and extensive testing in various prefiltering and extraction technologies to assess the optimal technology and metallurgical process for application at the KLP; planned trade-off studies will determine the optimum integration of technologies for the production of battery-grade lithium and will include:
  • Analysis of direct lithium extraction either by adsorption or ion exchange;
  • Processes for concentrating the eluate to a final product.
• Creation of an extensive depletion and recovery model to support economic analysis and optimize reservoir development.

The majority of the budget's cost supports the geological and engineering activities that advance the commercial potential of the KLP. Minor amounts are allocated to certain regulatory matters, internal administration and compliance costs.

Denison and the company have commenced a request for proposal (RFP) process with leading engineering service firms to write an independent PFS in accordance with NI 43-101. The PFS will further derisk and analyze the technical and economic feasibility of the KLP and build on the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed in 2023. As part of the RFP process, leading candidates recommended the completion of extensive metallurgical lab pilot test work to facilitate a comparison between several different extraction technologies as a necessary step to complete a PFS. Based on this process and the recommendations contained within the PFS, a future field pilot test may be designed, constructed and operated for a sufficient period of time to support the further advancement of the KLP.

"These exciting next steps with our technical and financial partner, Denison, represent a significant step in the advancement of the KLP, focusing on developing a deeper understanding of the resource and its potential economics," commented Gregg Smith, president and chief executive officer of Grounded Lithium. "The KLP benefits from a comparatively shallow position to access such high-quality resource in a relatively clean brine with few hydrocarbons and other deleterious minerals, which is expected to support cost savings due to our minimal prefiltering. Our collaborative stepwise budget developed over the last eight months creates value for both respective shareholder bases as we progress forward with our next field efforts and reservoir analysis initiatives towards a thoroughly considered and rigorous PFS."

Earn-in agreement impact

Pursuant to the agreement, Denison holds an option to earn a working interest in the KLP by sole financing project expenditures. Should Denison finance $2.2-million of project expenditures, it will have fulfilled its phase 1 conditions and earned a 30-per-cent interest in the KLP. Upon completion of this budget, Denison will have incurred in excess of $5-million, inclusive of prebudget expenditures to date, of the $6-million cumulative project expenditures required to complete phase 2 of the agreement. Should additional expenditures follow post this budget, subsequent phases may be earned into by Denison. As disclosed in Grounded Lithium's press release dated Jan. 16, 2024, the agreement comprises the phases/stages as shown in the attached table.

In order to complete phase 2, Denison is required to remit a cash payment of $850,000 to the company, which would enhance Grounded Lithium's liquidity and financial flexibility through 2025.

About Grounded Lithium Corp.

Grounded Lithium is a publicly traded lithium brine exploration and development company that controls approximately one million metric tonnes of measured and indicated lithium carbonate equivalent mineral resource and approximately 3.2 million metric tonnes of inferred lithium carbonate equivalent resource over Grounded Lithium's focused landholdings in southwestern Saskatchewan as per the company's updated PEA. The updated PEA, titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report: Preliminary Economic Assessment, Kindersley Lithium Project -- Phase 1 Update," dated Nov. 7, 2023, and effective as of June 30, 2023, reports a phase 1 after-tax net present value (discounted at 8 per cent) of $1-billion (U.S.) with an after-tax internal rate of return of 48.5 per cent. Grounded Lithium's multifaceted business model involves the consolidation, delineation, exploitation and, ultimately, development of Grounded Lithium's opportunity base to fulfill the company's vision to build a best-in-class, environmentally responsible, Canadian lithium producer supporting the global energy transition shift. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and real-time Level 2 quotes for the company on the OTC Markets website.

Qualified person

Scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been prepared under the supervision of Doug Ashton, PEng, Alexey Romanov, PGeo, Meghan Klein, PEng, Dean Quirk, PEng, Jeffrey Weiss, PEng, Chad Hitchings, PLEng, and Michael Munteanu, PEng, each of whom is a qualified person within the meaning of NI 43-101.

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