Communicators

Piedmont Lithium Limited (ASX: PLL; NASDAQ: PLL) (“Piedmont” or “Company”) is pleased to present its June 2020 quarterly report. Highlights during and subsequent to the quarter were:

-          Completed a pre-feasibility study (“PFS”) for Piedmont’s proposed lithium hydroxide chemical plant (“Chemical Plant”) in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, USA. The PFS highlighted a business model where a Piedmont built and owned Chemical Plant would convert spodumene concentrate purchased on the global market to battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

-          Completed an updated scoping study for Piedmont’s integrated mine-to-hydroxide project. The mine-to-hydroxide project comprises a mine and concentrator producing spodumene concentrate which will be transported to Piedmont’s Chemical Plant and converted into battery-grade lithium hydroxide.  The updated scoping study includes the results of the new Chemical Plant PFS.

-          Completed additional metallurgical testwork to produce 120 kilograms of spodumene concentrate from core samples collected from the Piedmont Lithium Project.  Concentrate qualities and recoveries were consistent with earlier testwork programs.

-          Completed a bench-scale lithium hydroxide testwork program at SGS Canada, Inc. in Lakefield, Ontario which demonstrated conversion of Piedmont ore to battery-quality lithium hydroxide.

-          Entered into a memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) with Primero Group (“Primero”) for the delivery of Piedmont’s planned spodumene concentrator on an engineer, procure, and construct (“EPC”) basis, with Primero to contract operate the spodumene concentrator for a period of up to six years following construction.

-          Concluded a definitive and exclusive marketing agreement for byproduct quartz, feldspar, and mica with Ion Carbon, a division of AMCI.  The Company continues to advance offtake discussions for byproducts with quartz offtake discussions the most advanced.

-          Appointed Mr. Austin Devaney as Vice President – Sales & Marketing. Mr. Devaney spent most of the past decade in senior marketing roles with Albemarle Corporation, most recently as Vice President, Strategic Marketing and Customer Excellence.

-          Completed a U.S. public offering of 2,065,000 of its American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”), each representing 100 of its ordinary shares, including the exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option, at an issue price of US$6.30 per ADS, to raise gross proceeds of US$13.0 million (~A$18.6 million) (“Public Offering”).

-          Piedmont has also received commitments from existing non-U.S. institutional and sophisticated shareholders and directors for 120,000,000 of its fully paid ordinary shares, at an issue price of A$0.09 per share (which equates to the same issue price of the Public Offering), to raise gross proceeds of A$10.8 million (“Private Placement”). Completion of the Private Placement is subject to shareholder approval.

Keith D. Philips, President and CEO of Piedmont commented “We are extremely pleased with the progress the Company has made during the quarter on advancing our 100% owned Piedmont Lithium Project.  The PFS and scoping studies both demonstrate the economic benefit of developing a lithium chemical business in North Carolina, USA given its exceptional infrastructure, low operating costs and competitive tax regime.

“We continue to build a world-class team to support the project development.  The appointment of Austin Devaney, one of the world’s most experienced lithium marketing professionals, significantly improves the Company’s lithium marketing experience. Primero’s extensive skill set in the construction and operation of spodumene concentrate plants adds considerable technical experience and de-risks that aspect of our project. 

“Piedmont’s robust balance sheet provides the ability for the company to continue to progress the development the Kings Mountain site.  We will be actively working on a Definitive Feasibility Study in coming months and I look forward to updating the market in due course”

For further information, contact:

Keith Phillips

President & CEO

T: +1 973 809 0505

E: kphillips@piedmontlithium.com

Tim McKenna

Investor and Government Relations

T: +1 732 331 6457

E: tmckenna@piedmontlithium.com

Figure 1: Piedmont Lithium Project located within the TSB

Project Overview

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 tonnes per year (“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 27.9 million tonnes (“Mt”) 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.

Please follow the link to view entire original news in English language:

https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20200730/pdf/44kzgnh5wk1bzb.pdf

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 Exploration Results, 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 July 23, 2020, 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 authorised for release by the Company’s CEO, Mr. Keith Phillips.

Please follow the link to view entire original news in English language:

https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20200730/pdf/44kzgnh5wk1bzb.pdf