9 St George Mining Limited Annual Report 2024 LITHIUM STAR – Milestone investment supports ramp-up of exploration St George completed the acquisition of seven hard-rock lithium projects with all projects owned 100% by St George’s subsidiary, Lithium Star Pty Ltd (“Lithium Star”). The new projects comprise 14 exploration licences in Western Australia covering a total area of 653 sq km, including land packages located along strike from high-grade lithium deposits and established spodumene producing lithium mines. For further details of the acquisition, see our ASX Release dated 8 August 2023 Acquisition of Strategic Lithium Project. Amperex Technology Limited (“ATL”), the world’s leading producer of lithium-ion batteries, invested $3 million in Lithium Star to acquire a 10% equity stake in Lithium Star with St George holding the remaining 90%.3 The investment by ATL of $3 million for a 10% stake in Lithium Star has provided a major step forward in unlocking the value of the Lithium Star project portfolio. Significantly, several of the Lithium Star projects are strategically located along strike and/or in the same district as spodumene producing mines. The new funds will allow acceleration of exploration by Lithium Star, with exploration prioritised for the following projects: – Split Rocks Project: located ~25km north-west of the Earl Grey lithium deposit (189Mt @ 1.50% Li2O), owned in joint venture by Wesfarmers (ASX: WES) and SQM (NYSE: SQM)4 – Buningonia and Buningonia North Projects: located in the same lithium province as Global Lithium’s (ASX: GL1) Manna Project (32.7Mt @ 1.0% Li2O)5 and the operating Bald Hill Mine (26Mt @ 1% Li 2O)6 – Myuna Rocks Project: located along the lithium belt that hosts Allkem’s (ASX: AKE) operating Mt Cattlin Mine (12.1Mt @ 1.3% Li2O)7 St George is confident the strategic relationship with ATL will provide an opportunity to leverage ATL’s substantial financial and technical capabilities in a way that can maximise the value of the Company’s lithium projects. Figure 5: Map of showing the location of the St George’s projects in Western Australia (including the Lithium Star projects) as well as major lithium mines and deposits in development. 3 See St George’s ASX Release dated 17 October 2023 ‘Investment by World Leader in Lithium-ion Batteries’ 4 Wesfarmers Proposal to acquire Kidman Resources – ASX Briefing Presentation 2 May 2019 5 Global Lithium Delivers Transformative 50.7 Mt Lithium Resource Base – ASX Release 15 December 2022 6 Lithium Ore Reserve Increase of 105% at Bald Hill by Tawana Resources – ASX Release 6 June 2018 7 Allkem Confirms Material Growth Profile – ASX Release 25 September 2023
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