Cobalt and Lithium Surging Demand and Rising Increase in Prices Fueling Influx of Mining Projects

PALM BEACH, Florida, November 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Surging demand fundamentals for cobalt and lithium have significantly changed with technological advancements in electric vehicles, e-mobility, rising Gigafactories, lithium-ion batteries and more. Industry insiders anticipate that demand for electric vehicles will increase phenomenally over the next ten years, particularly in North America, Europe and North East Asia, creating a huge demand for lithium-ion batteries. With the continued rising demand for lithium-ion batteries at an all-time high as sales of electric vehicles increase each year, lithium and cobalt mining companies are scrambling to keep up with the insatiable demand and meet the skyrocketing forecast. Cobalt/Lithium miners with developments include: LiCo Energy Metals Inc. (OTC: WCTXF) (TSX-V: LIC), FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC), Lithium X Energy Corp (OTC: LIXXF) (TSX-V: LIX), eCobalt Solutions Inc. (OTC: ECSIF) (TSX: ECS), Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RIO), Quantum Cobalt Corp. (CSE: QBOT).

LiCo Energy Metals Inc. (OTCQB: WCTXF) (TSX-V: LIC.V) is pleased to update its shareholders on the current diamond drilling program for its Teledyne and Glencore Bucke Cobalt Properties situated in Bucke and Lorrain Townships, 6 km east-northeast of Cobalt, Ontario, as originally announced on September 12th, 2017.

The Company has recently completed drilling 27 diamond drill holes for a combined depth of approximately 3,106 meters on its two cobalt mineral exploration properties in Ontario. The current drill program is designed to confirm and extend the existing known mineralization and to provide the company with sufficient drill hole information to create a geological model and a 43-101 complaint resource estimate. Read this and more news for LiCo Energy at: http://www.marketnewsupdates.com/news/wctxf.html

On the Glencore Bucke Property, the Company has completed a total of 21 diamond drill holes totaling 1,900 m, testing the Main and Northwest zones. Visual cobalt camp style mineralization has been noted in every drill hole that the Company has logged to date. The drill program has been completed as planned, and the drill rig was demobilized earlier in the week. Historical drilling completed on the Glencore Bucke Property outlined two separate vein systems hosting significant cobalt and silver values. The Main Zone, currently is 152 m in length, and the Northwest Zone, measuring 70 m in length. The Main Zone had a north-south strike, which is hypothesized as the southern extension of the #3 vein from the Cobalt Contact Mine located immediately to the north of the Property (Bresee, 1982).

On the Company's adjoining Teledyne Property, a total of 1,206 m has been completed in 6 diamond drill holes. Drilling has intersected Cobalt camp style mineralization in each drill hole that has been logged to date. Diamond drilling is expected to continue testing targets identified by management throughout the month of November and early December. "We are exceptionally pleased with the exploration program to date," says Tim Fernback, President & CEO of LiCo. "We look forward to the assay results that will be released over the next 30-45 days."

In other mining industry news and developments:

FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC) Developments: As reported on Reuters last week, the company recently said it would invest $300 million investment to double its lithium production in Argentina by 2019, its local affiliate said in a statement. The investment in Catamarca province will more than double its output of lithium to 40,000 metric tonnes per year in two years, unit Minera del Altiplano said. Catamarca province Governor Lucia Corpacci said the agreement would need to be approved by the province's legislature. FMC is one of the so-called 'big four' global companies that produce lithium, a mineral used in rechargeable batteries. The price of lithium has rocketed in recent years on the back of an expected rise in demand for electric vehicles.

Liberty One Lithium Corp. (OTC: LRTTF) (TSX-V: LBY.V) recently announced that drilling has commenced at its Pocitos West property in Northern Argentina. The operational team moved quickly to secure and mobilize a drilling rig and all related equipment. Commensurate with the Company's focus on its strong leadership team, the Company has deployed to site Monty McNeil, the Company's Senior Engineering and Operations Manager. With operations underway, on-site determination by the team will assess initial findings from the brine samples at specific depths, as defined by geophysics and drill hole logging. If warranted, the team may elect to case the primary well for monitoring, and drill an adjacent rotary/core hole for pumping tests. Once the initial well is at depth and down-hole geophysics logging and depth-specific packer sampling have been completed, the drilling equipment will be moved to the second target to undertake preliminary wide-area sampling of the salar basin characteristics.

eCobalt Solutions (OTC: ECSIF) (TSX: ECS.TO) recently announced the SEDAR filing of a Feasibility Study Technical Report ("FS") of the Company's Idaho Cobalt Project ("ICP"), the only environmentally permitted, primary cobalt project located in the United States (see company news release dated September 27 , 2017). The economic model uses a 34% corporate tax rate and a 7.5% discount rate, resulting in an after-tax NPV of $135.8M and an IRR of 21.3% using an average base case price of $26.65 /lb for contained cobalt in cobalt sulphate. The ICP is 100% owned by the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Formation Capital Corporation, U.S. The FS was prepared by Micon International ("MI") in conjunction with SNC Lavalin ("SNC") both of Toronto, Canada. The FS is based on an underground mine with a target production rate of 800 short tons per day ("tpd") and a weighted average annual production of 2.4M lbs of cobalt, 3.3M lbs of copper and 3,000 oz of gold over a 12.5 year mine life with an estimated pre-production period of 24 months utilizing a 0.25% cobalt cut-off grade.

Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RIO) has been reported the company is said to be weighing its investment in Chile's Chemical and Mining Society (SQM), based on several factors. SQM, which has a market value at just over $15 billion, produced roughly 44 million tonnes of lithium carbonate last year and is developing new projects in Chile and Australia. According to the Chilean news site El Mostrador, Rio is looking at the 32% interest in SQM that Canada's PotashCorp. must sell in order to be allowed to merge with its smaller rival, Agrium.io's main exposure to lithium is through its 100%-owned lithium and borates mineral project in Jadar, Serbia, which is still in the early stages of development.

Quantum Cobalt Corp. (CSE: QBOT) recently announced this month that it has entered into an option to acquire 100 per cent of the Nipissing Lorrain cobalt project located 26 kilometres southeast of Cobalt, Ont. The property consists of two separate claims and is adjacent to First Cobalt's Silver Centre claims. Six separate underground workings have been historically mined for cobalt-silver-nickel. The Nipissing Lorrain mine cobalt property is located 26 kilometres southeast of the town of Cobalt near the eastern border of Ontario. Cobalt is the epicentre of past Cobalt mining in Ontario. The district is mining friendly, with a rich history of cobalt and silver production.

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