MAX Power Mining Corp. announced that Phase 1 drilling has commenced at the Company?s Willcox Playa Lithium Project in Arizona. Compilation of historical data combined with results from MAX Power?s 2023 geophysics program has given geologists a model for a potential significant discovery at the Playa where first-ever systematic diamond drilling is now in progress.

MAX Power has first-mover advantage at Willcox where the Playa comprises approximately 50 sq. miles (129 sq.km) in an area with nearby infrastructure, surrounded by roads, rail, power and services provided by a nearby community. MAX Power is targeting both a property-wide claystone sequence below the Willcox Playa, which has a thickness of up to 1,600 metres, and trapped non potable fluids with the potential to host lithium brines; MAX Power has defined pervasive and significant resistivity low anomalies across most of its 3,754-acre property.

Extreme resistivity lows, detected through a recent HSAMT Survey, most probably represent clay-rich sediments, which could comprise lithium targets extending from near-surface to depth; The HSAMT Survey suggests these anomalies are persistent to depths of at least 600 metres below the surface with the thickness of the clay sequence estimated to be 1,200 to 1,600 metres; In addition to the anomalies, the geophysical cross section highlights what appears to be a series of sub-vertical parallel structural controls, possibly faults, that are known in similar settings to concentrate lithium in desert playa environments; A comprehensive review of historical data suggests that illite and montmorillonite, associated with the weathering of silicic volcanic ash tuffs, are the most common clay minerals under the Willcox Playa. Illite at Willcox is described as the ?dominant? clay mineral in a PhD thesis.

Its formation in a geothermally active, alkaline environment is often significant and can aid in the concentration of lithium. This clay mineral is known to contribute to high-grade lithium values in other claystone lithium deposits. The current model for the deposition and concentration of lithium on and under the Playa involves four key steps: The erosion of the Apache Leap Tuffs (18.5 Ma), the proposed source rocks which surround much of the playa (Chiricahua Mountains to the south, the Dos Cabezas mountains to the east and the Dragoon and Little Dragoon Mountains to the west, and the Galiuro-Winchester mountains to the north); The material eroded from the source rocks was then transported to the centre of the valley into a very large brackish lake named Lake Cochise.

The Playa is a mere remnant of Pleistocene aged Lake Cochise; The basin is hydrologically closed, and the fluids for the most part do not exit, other than by evaporation. This created a concentration and compaction of the deposited materials over time. The result was a dry lake with a clay package up to one mile (1,600 metres) thick beneath the current land surface.

Refer to Figure 1, a general outline of the source rocks, deposition and concentration; The nearbyTurkey Creek Caldera is proposed as an important heat source to drive geothermal springs in the area and add to the concentration of lithium within the Playa basin.