LiCo Energy Metals Shareholder Update
1220-789 West Pender St
Vancouver BC V6C 1H2
Phone : (236) 521-0207
LiCoEnergyMetals.com
PRESS RELEASE
LiCo Energy Metals Shareholder Update
May 14, 2018: Vancouver, British Columbia; - LiCo Energy Metals Inc. (“the Company” or
LiCo”) TSX-V: LIC, OTCQB: WCTXF would like to provide its shareholders with additional
information regarding the May 8, 2018 announcement of the signing of an option agreement
for a 60% interest in the Teledyne and Glencore Bucke cobalt properties (the “Properties”) with
Surge Exploration Inc.
Since the completion of LiCo’s Phase 1 diamond drilling programs at the end of the 2017
calendar year, Company management has been reviewing various financing options that will
allow it to continue to move forward its promising lithium projects in Nevada and Chile, as well
as, its cobalt projects (Teledyne Cobalt and Glencore Bucke) in Canada.
The Company’s working capital, although sufficient to maintain operations, was inadequate to
allow the Company to undertake five separate exploration programs in three countries on two
different continents at the same time. Therefore, the Company sought various financing
strategies that would allow it to continue to explore its properties and increase the value of its
mineral assets for both calendar 2018 and 2019. The goal of each financing strategy was to
provide the resources to fund the Company’s disclosed exploration programs, realizing that
each of these strategies may either dilute the Company’s shareholders through a private
placement, or in the alternative, reduce the Company’s interest in a single project going forward
by entering into a property option agreement that funds the Company’s stated 2018 and 2019
exploration programs.
Given the continued softening / deterioration of junior mining equity financing markets and the
relatively large number of Company common shares already issued and outstanding,
management believed that seeking project specific option agreements would be the Company’s
most readily available financing strategy option. On April 3, 2018 the Company announced the
acceleration of payments for the Teledyne property in order to increase the property’s value
with the aim of attracting further interest in the property. During this time, the Company
received unsolicited expressions of interest for optioning and joint venturing its various mining
assets. Each of these expressions of interest were deficient and ultimately rejected by
management. At this point, LiCo was introduced to Surge Exploration Inc. , through the
common director. Surge Exploration Inc. had recently completed a financing and was looking
for a suitable mining exploration project. After a due diligence period, an option agreement
was successfully negotiated and ultimately signed by the respective company directors, with
the common director abstaining from each vote . The agreement remains subject to TSX
2
Venture Exchange approval.
This negotiated agreement not only provides LiCo with valuable cash (CAD $240,000) and equity
consideration (1,000,000 common shares in a publicly traded company), but also completes the
funding required for the Company’s 2018 and 2019 exploration programs on both the Teledyne
and Glencore Bucke properties and funds 60% of all future expenditures on these properties.
The stated goal of the 2018 and 2019 exploration programs are to define an underground cobalt
resource on the property, which management believes is extremely valuable to both LiCo and
its shareholders. It is this reason, along with the need for additional working capital and
exploration funds, that management believes that LiCo shareholders will ultimately gain from
the funding agreement and association with Surge Exploration Inc.
About LiCo Energy Metals: https://licoenergymetals.com/
LiCo Energy Metals Inc. is a Canadian based exploration company whose primary listing is on the
TSX Venture Exchange. The Company's focus is directed towards exploration for high value
metals integral to the manufacture of lithium ion batteries.
Glencore Bucke Cobalt Project (Cobalt, Ontario): The Company has purchased a 100% interest from
Glencore Canada Corporation (subsidiary of Glencore plc) in the Glencore Bucke Property, situated
in Bucke Township, 6 km east-northeast of Cobalt, Ontario, subject to a back-in provision, production
royalty and off-take agreement. Strategically, the Glencore Bucke Property consists of 16.2 hectares
and sits along the west boundary of LiCo’s Teledyne Cobalt Project. The Property covers the southern
extension of the #3 vein that was historically mined on the neighbouring Cobalt Contact Property
located to the north of the Glencore Bucke Property. Diamond drilling in 1981 on the Glencore Bucke
Property delineated two zones of mineralization measuring 150 m and 70 m in length. During the
fall of 2017, LiCo completed 21 diamond drill holes totaling 1,900 m. This drill program, along with
3
the Phase 1 diamond drilling program completed on the Teledyne Cobalt Property, satisfied LiCo’s
flow-through financing obligations. The exploration program at the Glencore Bucke Property also
satisfied our contractual obligations to Glencore plc. whereby LiCo was to incur $250,000 of
exploration expenditures on the Property within six months of the approval date (see News Release
dated September 5th, 2017).
Ontario Teledyne Cobalt Project (Cobalt, Ontario):
The Company has recently exercised its option to earn 100% ownership, subject to a royalty, in the
Teledyne Project located near Cobalt. Ontario. The Property adjoins the south and west boundaries
of claims that hosted the Agaunico Mine. From 1905 through to 1961, the Agaunico Mine produced
a total of 4,350,000 lbs. of cobalt and 980,000 oz. of silver. A significant portion of the cobalt that was
produced at the Agaunico Mine located along structures that extended southward onto the Teledyne
property. The Company completed a total of 11 diamond drill holes totaling 2,200 m in the fall of
2017. The drilling has confirmed cobalt mineralization present on the Property which is consistent
with historical grades as reported historically by Cunningham-Dunlop (1979) and Bressee (1981),
disclosed in earlier news releases. These reports are available in the public domain through MNDM’s
AFRI database.
NI 43-101 Reports for both the Teledyne and Glencore Bucke Properties, are publicly available on
www.SEDAR.com as well as the Company’s website. LiCo’s recently completed diamo nd drilling
program (September to December 2017) consisted of both twinning and infill drilling of the historical
drill holes located on both the Teledyne Cobalt and Glencore Bucke Properties.
Purickuta Lithium Project (Chile):
The Purickuta Project is located within Salar de Atacama, a salt flat encompassing 3,000 km2, being
about 100 km long, 80 km wide and home to approximately 37% of the worlds Lithium production
and Chile itself holds 53% of the world’s known lithium reserves (Source: Bloomberg Markets – June
23, 2017, “Lithium Squeeze Looms as Top Miner Front-Loads, Chile Says”). The property is 160
hectares large and is enveloped by a concession owned by Sociedad Quimica y Minera (“SQM”) and
lies within a few kilometers of a property owned by CORFO (the Chilean Economic Development
Agency) where its leases land to both SQM and Albermarle’s Rockwood Lithium Corp. (“Albermarle”)
for lithium extraction. Together these two companies, SQM and Albermarle, have a combined annual
production of over 62,000 tonnes of LCE (Lithium Carbonate Equivalent) making up 100% of Chile’s
current lithium output. As reported in The Economist (June 15, 2017 – A battle for supremacy in the
lithium triangle), the Salar de Atacama has the largest and highest quality proven reserves of lithium.
The combination of the desert’s hot sun, scarce rainfall, and the mineral-rich brines make Chile’s
production costs the world’s lowest. This together with a favourable investment climate, low levels
of corruption, and the quality of its bureaucracy and courts makes Chile a favourable place to conduct
business.
Dixie Valley Lithium Project (Nevada, USA):
The Company has an option to acquire a 100% interest, subject to a 3% NSR, on a large lithium
exploration project at the Humboldt Salt Marsh in Dixie Valley, Nevada. Some important geological
similarities exist between various lithium brines, notably geothermal activity, a dry climate, a closed
basin, an aquifer, and tectonically driven subsistence exist at Dixie Valley along with Clayton Valley
and various lithium bearing salars in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.
Black Rock Desert Lithium Project (Nevada, USA):
4
The Company has entered into an option agreement whereby the Company may earn an undivided
100% interest, subject to a 3% NSR, in the Black Rock Desert Lithium Project in southwest Black Rock
Desert, Washoe County, Nevada.
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved Joerg Kleinboeck, P.Geo.,
an independent consulting geologist and a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
“Tim Fernback”
Tim Fernback, President & CEO
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.
Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information:
This news release may contain forward-looking statements which include, but are not limited to, comments that involve future events and
conditions, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Except for statements of historical facts, comments that ad dress resource
potential, upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt and security of mineral property titles, availability of funds, and others are
forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual resu lts may vary materially from those
statements. General business conditions are factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from forward-looking statements.