Katoro Gold PLC shared an update relating to the Company's recently proposed 100% acquisition of 31 Explore Ltd. ("31 Explore") and its entire critical minerals claims portfolio in Ontario, Canada following the Conditional Equity Financing and Strategic Expansion announcement of 10 February 2025. The announced placing is conditional on approval on various resolutions to be put to Shareholders at a Katoro General Meeting to be 28 February 2025. 31 Explore has, in consultation with Katoro, staked additional claims contiguous to the Pearl Lithium Project ('Pearl' or the 'Project') resulting in an expansion to the west to encompass recently interpreted geological features which are prospective for mineralisation of critical minerals.
The existing heads of terms agreement between the parties is unaffected by this additional staking. HIGHLIGHTS: Expansion of the Pearl Lithium Project from 880 hectares (8.8km) to 1,475 hectares; New interpretation over unmapped areas reveals exploration opportunity; Follows technical and strategic collaboration between Katoro and 31 Explore; and No change to acquisition consideration. PEARL LITHIUM PROJECT: The original Pearl Lithium Project was made up of 43 Single Cell Mining Claims ("claims") covering a total area of 880 hectares.
This has now been expanded to the west for a total of 72 claims with an area of 1,475 hectares. The claim boundaries and expanded area are shown along with other information supporting the exploration opportunity, namely mapped pegmatites, anomalous lithium values in lake sediment samples and inferred pegmatites following interpretation of available LiDAR data. The Project is situated on the north of the large (60km) Bluffy Lake batholith, where partial mapping by the Ontario Geological Survey identified five pegmatite outcrops in 19674.
The majority of the Project area remains unmapped and no sampling of the pegmatites was reported. The regional location of Pearl is a noted lithium district, within the English River Sub-province, and around 6km south of the boundary with the Uchi sub-province. Such major terrane boundaries are controlled by deep seated structures that divide pieces of Archean crust and can focus the locations of fertile peraluminous granites; these granites are amicable to the generation of lithium-caesium-tantalum ("LCT") pegmatites, such as present at Green Technology Metal's Root Project5 which hosts anInferred Mineral Resource estimate of 14.6Mt @ 1.21% Li2O, 74km to the east of Pearl along the sub-province boundary trend.
The Ontario Geological Survey has sampled and assayed lake sediments in and around the Pearl area4 for a suite of elements. Three lakes in the centre and east of Pearl were identified by 31 Explore as being anomalous and highly anomalous for elements associated with LCT pegmatites, in comparison to over 3,000 lake sediment samples across the wider region6. The recently expanded portion of the Project does not host any lakes and thus contains no lake sediment data.
A recent technical review by Katoro and 31 Explore of LiDAR data available through the Ontario GeoHub indicates geological features which are consistent with pegmatites which are prospective for lithium-bearing mineralisation.
