Imperial Mining Receives Additional Assays from the Crater Lake Summer Drilling Program

Imperial Mining Group Ltd. ("Imperial")  is pleased to announce that it has received additional assays from the Crater Lake summer drilling program on the TG scandium-rare earth mineralized zone. Assay results have confirmed the substantial intersection widths of scandium-bearing olivine ferrosyenite (Table 1 and 2) reported earlier (see Imperial Mining Press Release - OCT 20, 2022). The drilling program was completed in early September. Once all results have been received from the Lab and compilation of the data completed, Imperial plans to undertake an updated 43-101 Resource Estimate for the Zone. The new data plans to convert the Inferred Category Resources reported late last year (see Imperial Mining Press Release - SEP 23, 2021) into Indicated/Measured Resources.

“The summer drilling results for the Crater Lake property continue to exceed all expectations, as they continue to confirm wide intervals of scandium and TREO+Y at the TGZ target,” said Peter Cashin, Imperial’s President & Chief Executive Officer. “Drilling has now defined the Zone on 50 m sections between Sections 350 N and 600 N and mineralization has been traced by drilling over 600 m in total strike length from surface to a vertical depth of 150 m (Figure 1). Importantly, the zone appears to get wider and higher grade with depth. We anticipate that the resource will likely increase from what was previously reported for the TG.”

Current Drilling

To date, assays for three additional holes for 648.0 m have been received (Table 2, Figure 1). All drillholes have intersected the target mafic intrusive host rock. The drilling indicates that the TG scandium Zone is doubly dipping between 83⁰ west to 70⁰ east, with a north-northeast strike direction. The widths of the mineralized zone vary between 55 and 135 m (180-443’) in true thickness. Mineralization is open at depth below the 200 m vertical level and along strike and appears as a thickening, conical-shaped body in cross-section.

Table 1. Crater Lake Drilling Best Assay Results

Notes - 1 ppm of Sc metal equals 1.5338 ppm scandium oxide (Sc₂O₃) ; 1 g/t equals 1 ppm. TREO+Y includes oxides of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu plus Y.

Table 2. Borehole Location Table – Crater Lake Project, Quebec

QA-QC Protocol

Strict QA/QC protocols have been implemented for the Crater Lake Project, including the insertion of certified reference materials (standards), duplicates and blanks at regular intervals throughout the sequence of samples.

A total of 500 drillcore samples, including 35 QA-QC samples, were sent to Activation Laboratories Ltd. All sample preparation and analytical work will be carried out at their facilities in Ancaster, Ontario. Several analytical techniques were used to characterize the samples, which are combined at Actlabs into the analytical package “8-REE”. This package includes whole-rock and trace element analytic techniques. Whole Rock analyses are done via a lithium metaborate/tetraborate fusion inductively coupled plasma (ICP) finish. Trace elements are also analyzed by fusion ICP/MS.

The technical content in this press release was prepared, reviewed and certified by Pierre Guay, P. Geo., Imperial's Vice-President, Exploration, a Geologist and Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101.