E3 Metals awarded Government of Canada funding for advancement of lithium concentration technology

E3 Metals awarded Government of Canada funding for advancement of lithium concentration technology

Highlights

• E3 Metals has been awarded up to $56,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program towards the advancement and scale-up of its proprietary lithium concentration technology
• Work on the Company's lithium selective sorbent will be conducted in collaboration with the National Research Council's Energy Storage Materials Formulation and Optimization Group in Ottawa, Ontario
  

CALGARY, June 28, 2018 /CNW/ - E3 METALS CORP. (TSXV: ETMC) (FSE: OU7A) (OTC: EEMMF) (the "Company" or "E3 Metals") is pleased to announce that, in addition to ongoing advisory services, the Company has been awarded up to $56,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). The funding will support a portion of the Company's lithium extraction technology work with the NRC Energy Storage Materials Formulation and Optimization Group in Ottawa, Ontario. This group has extensive experience in research, development and validation of materials across the entire energy storage value chain. E3 Metals will be matching the NRC IRAP funding which will continue to support the advancement of the Company's promising lithium concentration technology throughout 2018.

Pending finalization of the services agreement, the development work at NRC will assist E3 Metals with optimization and further validation of its lithium concentration technology. Using their expertise in sorbent synthesis, the NRC will work to further enhance performance of the selective sorbent to improve reaction time, lithium recovery and overall concentration factor. Sorbent optimization is a key step leading to the Company's micro-pilot facility planned for late 2018. This facility will demonstrate the effectiveness of the Company's proprietary concentration technology in combination with already commercially available polishing and production technologies. This modular, bench-scale, prototype is expected to produce small quantities of high purity LiOH and/or Li₂CO₃ from E3 Metals' Petro-Lithium brines. Once the process has proven successful, the modular prototype will be transitioned into the field for scaled-up testing. With brine readily available from several oil and gas operating partners, field-testing of this prototype equipment is expected to commence in early 2019.

Testing of the Company's lithium concentration technology to date has resulted in the successful concentration of raw brine up to 16 times in less than 3 hours, while removing over 99% of critical metal impurities. These independently verified results are detailed in a May 29, 2018 news release.

About E3 Metals Corp.
E3 Metals is a Petro-Lithium company rapidly advancing the development of direct recovery lithium brine projects in Alberta. E3 Metals holds lithium resources at 6.7 Mt LCE (inferred)¹. The Company has a compelling competitive advantage by virtue of having access to extensive infrastructure built by the Oil and Gas industry in Alberta. This has provided E3 Metals with low finding costs, as the Company has been able to sample existing wells to define its resource. This infrastructure may also provide wells and pipelines for a future lithium production operation, potentially reducing the Company's future capital requirements. The Company's immediate goal is to demonstrate a commercially viable chemical concentration process and believes this is a key driver to commercial production of its Alberta Petro-Lithium brine resource. More information about E3 Metals can be found on our website by visiting: www.e3metalscorp.com.  

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,

Chris Doornbos, President & CEO
E3 METALS CORP.

Chris Doornbos (P.Geo), CEO and Director of E3 Metals Corp., is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and has read and approved the technical information contained in this announcement.

¹ E3 Metals has released information on three 43-101 Technical Reports totalling a resource of 6.7 Mt LCE.  The Central Clearwater Resource Area (CCRA) Technical Report, identifying 1.9Mt LCE (inferred), is dated effective October 27, 2017, and the North Rocky Resource Area (NRRA) Technical Report was dated effective October 27, 2017, identifies 0.9Mt LCE (inferred). A third report for the Exshaw West Resource Area (EWRA), identifies 3.9Mt LCE (inferred) and was filed on June 15^th 2018, effective June 4^th 2018.  All reports are available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements concerning the potential of the Company's projects to produce saleable lithium byproducts, including LCE, the future performance of our business, its operations and its financial performance and condition, as well as management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, fluctuating commodity prices, the effectiveness and feasibility of emerging lithium extraction technologies which have not yet been tested or proven on a commercial scale or on the Company's brine, competitive risks and the availability of financing, as described in more detail in our recent securities filings available at www.sedar.com. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and we caution against placing undue reliance thereon. We assume no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE E3 Metals Corp.