Piedmont Achieves Milestone with Production of Battery Quality Lithium Hydroxide

-          Bench-scale lithium hydroxide testwork has been successfully completed at SGS Canada

-          Testwork results compare favorably with current battery quality market specifications

Piedmont Lithium Limited (“Piedmont” or “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has completed a bench-scale testwork program at SGS Canada, Inc. (“SGS”) in Lakefield, Ontario to produce initial quantities of battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate.  Lithium hydroxide was produced from spodumene concentrate produced at SGS from core samples taken from the Piedmont Lithium Project (“Project”).  Quality results compare favorably with current market specifications for battery quality lithium hydroxide.  Testwork results are shown in Table 1.

1. GB/T 8766-2013 T2
2. Company sources

The program results demonstrate the ability of Piedmont to concentrate and produce battery-quality lithium hydroxide via an ‘ore-to-hydroxide’ conversion route which is consistent with the chemical plant process design in the Company’s recently completed lithium chemical plant prefeasibility study.

Keith D. Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The successful production of battery quality lithium hydroxide from ore samples taken from the Company’s drill core represents a major milestone for Piedmont Lithium.  The Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt is renowned for its pure spodumene mineralogy, and we are very pleased that this testwork program confirms the low-impurity profile of our 100%-owned mineral resource.  With Austin Devaney now on board as our VP - Sales & Marketing, we look forward to sharing these results with prospective customers in the automotive, battery and cathode businesses, as we advance in our goal of becoming a leading American lithium hydroxide producer.”

For further information, contact:

Keith Phillips

President & CEO

T: +1 973 809 0505

E: [email protected]

Tim McKenna

Investor and Government Relations

T: +1 732 331 6457

E: tmckenna@piedmontlithium.com

Bench-Scale Lithium Hydroxide Testwork Program

To support lithium conversion testwork Piedmont prepared a spodumene concentrate sample using dense medium and flotation processing.  The results of the concentrate sample preparation were previously reported on May 13, 2020.  Refer to Company announcement “Piedmont Completes Additional Testwork to Produce High Grade Spodumene and Byproduct Concentrates.”  A testwork program was designed to run small-scale optimization tests and bulk tests to carry the concentrate sample through to battery quality lithium hydroxide.  Figure 1 describes the overall testwork plan.

Figure 1 – Block Flow Diagram of the LiOH Conversion Testwork Program

The bench-scale lithium hydroxide testwork program was a multi-step effort that includes extraction of lithium from spodumene, several stages of impurity removal, and a sequence of crystallization steps.  A summary of the steps involved is outlined in this announcement.

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About Piedmont Lithium

Piedmont Lithium Limited (ASX: PLL; Nasdaq: PLL) holds a 100% interest in the Piedmont Lithium Project, a pre-production business targeting the manufacturing of 22,700 t/y of battery quality lithium hydroxide in North Carolina, USA to support electric vehicle and battery supply chains in the United States and globally.  Piedmont’s premier southeastern USA location is advantaged by favorable geology, proven metallurgy and easy access to infrastructure, power, R&D centers for lithium and battery storage, major high-tech population centers and downstream lithium processing facilities.  Piedmont has reported 27.9Mt of Mineral Resources grading at 1.11% Li2O located within the world-class Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt (“TSB”) and along trend to the Hallman Beam and Kings Mountain mines, which historically provided most of the western world’s lithium between the 1950s and the 1980s. The TSB has been described as one of the largest lithium provinces in the world and is located approximately 25 miles west of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Forward Looking Statements

This announcement may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Piedmont’s expectations and beliefs concerning future events. Forward looking statements are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Piedmont, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. Piedmont makes no undertaking to subsequently update or revise the forward-looking statements made in this announcement, to reflect the circumstances or events after the date of that announcement.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources

The Project’s Core Property Mineral Resource of 25.1Mt @ 1.13% Li2O comprises Indicated Mineral Resources of 12.5Mt @ 1.13% Li2O and Inferred Mineral Resources of 12.6Mt @ 1.04% Li2O. The Central Property Mineral Resource of 2.80Mt @ 1.34% Li2O comprises Indicated Mineral Resources of 1.41Mt @ 1.38% Li2O and 1.39Mt @ 1.29% Li2O. The information contained in this announcement has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Australia, which differ from the requirements of U.S. securities laws. The terms "mineral resource", "measured mineral resource", "indicated mineral resource" and "inferred mineral resource" are Australian terms defined in accordance with the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the “JORC Code”).  However, these terms are not defined in Industry Guide 7 ("SEC Industry Guide 7") under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), and are normally not permitted to be used in reports and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Accordingly, information contained herein that describes Piedmont’s mineral deposits may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to reporting and disclosure requirements under the U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in Piedmont’s Form 20-F, a copy of which may be obtained from Piedmont or from the EDGAR system on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov/.

Competent Persons Statement

The information in this announcement that relates to Metallurgical Testwork Results is based on, and fairly represents, information compiled or reviewed by Dr. Jarrett Quinn, a Competent Person who is a Registered Member of Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec’, a ‘Recognized Professional Organization’ (RPO). Dr. Quinn is consultant to Primero Group. Dr. Quinn has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Dr. Quinn consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on information in the form and context in which it appears.

The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Results (other than Metallurgical Testwork Results), Exploration Targets, Mineral Resources, Concentrator Process Design, Concentrator Capital Costs, Concentrator Operating Costs, Mining Engineering and Mining Schedule is extracted from the Company’s ASX announcements dated May 26, 2020, June 25, 2019, April 24, 2019, and September 6, 2018 which are available to view on the Company’s website at www.piedmontlithium.com. Piedmont confirms that: a) it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original ASX announcements; b) all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning Mineral Resources, Exploration Targets, Production Targets, and related forecast financial information derived from Production Targets included in the original ASX announcements continue to apply and have not materially changed; and c) the form and context in which the relevant Competent Persons’ findings are presented in this report have not been materially modified from the original ASX announcements.

This announcement has been authorized for release by the Company’s CEO, Mr. Keith Phillips

To view entire original news, please follow the link:

https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20200723/pdf/44krw5fs5vvqq6.pdf