Post Acquisition Review of Garden Valley Project Identifies Significant Rare-Metal Opportunity

Critical minerals explorer and developer QEM Limited (ASX: QEM) ("QEM" or "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed a detailed review and compilation of available historical geological, mining and exploration information for the Garden Valley Project (formerly known as the Columbite Project) located in central-west Idaho, USA, for the purpose of identifying early exploration targets and activities.

This follows the acquisition of all shares in Freshwater Metals Pty Ltd("Freshwater")2, the owner of two critical minerals exploration projects: Big It and Garden Valley projects. Big It is a past producer of tungsten, and is also prospective for antimony and gold, while the Garden Valley Project hosts the Vaught-Peck prospect which is prospective for niobium, tantalum and other rare earth elements (REE).

Highlights

• Garden Valley Project represents a highly prospective U.S. rare-metal pegmatite project with exceptional coarse rare-metal mineralisation documented in historical government records
• Historical Vaught-Peck mine reportedly produced approx. 500lbs of columbite and identified a substantial zoned pegmatite (250 ft long, at least 200 ft wide) providing a priority target
• Multiple additional mineralised pegmatite occurrences across the Project provide district-scale exploration upside, with no systematic modern exploration or drilling completed
• Garden Valley Project is prospective for multiple U.S. critical minerals including: niobium, tantalum and REE - providing potential to address significant U.S. supply chain vulnerability
• United States has not had any significant mining of niobium or tantalum since the late 1950s with the U.S. reported as 100%net-import reliant on both metals

Commenting on the Garden Valley project, Managing Director Robert Cooper said,

"The compilation of the data for Garden Valley (formerly named Columbite) demonstrates the clear exploration potential for the highly prospective, underexplored niobium and tantalum system, and provides a platform from which QEM can plan and undertake exploration activities. Combined with the Big It Project, the Garden Valley Project positions the Company at the forefront of several tightening critical mineral global supply chains. With niobium constrained by extreme supply concentration and the tantalum market increasing, we see a unique potential for QEM to address the U.S. critical minerals supply chain crisis, and ultimately becoming a domestic producer of these critical minerals in the United States to feed a growing market."

Review Highlights

• Garden Valley Project represents a highly prospective U.S. rare-metal pegmatite project

  Multiple historically documented niobium (columbite), tantalum-bearing rare-metal and rare earth elements (REE) mineral occurrences across the Garden Valley claim package.

• Historical Columbite Mine represents the priority target

  Historical USGS work documented a large, strongly zoned pegmatite approx. 250 ft long and at least 200 ft wide, tested by a approx. 150 ft underground tunnel beneath a prominent quartz core.

• Exceptional coarse rare-metal mineralisation historically reported

  Includes recovery of a 309 lb columbite-bearing crystal associated with an approximately 100 lb samarskite crystal, demonstrating the capacity of the pegmatite system to develop very coarse concentrations of niobium-bearing and REE-bearing minerals.

• Multiple additional mineralised pegmatites provide district-scale exploration upside

  Reporting of historical columbite, samarskite and/or euxenite at the Bowman and Mirandeborde prospects, together with rare-earth oxides at Mica Dome.

• Historical exploration was limited and largely confined to surface/underground prospecting

  Principal occurrences were documented during mid-20th-century investigations with no systematic modern exploration programmes having been undertaken to define the scale, continuity or geochemical characteristics of the broader pegmatite field.

• Clear pathway to rapidly advance the Project

  Programmes to commence with geological and structural mapping, systematic rock and soil geochemistry and modern geophysics, followed by potential drilling of priority targets, including Vaught-Peck, Bowman and Mirandeborde.

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