Appia Announces Appointment of New President
Toronto, March 8, 2021 - Appia Energy Corp. (CSE: API) (OTCQB: APAAF) (FSE: A0I.F) (FSE: A0I.MU) (FSE: A0I.BE) (the "Company" or "Appia") is pleased to announce today that Mr. Frederick Kozak, has been appointed President of the Company with immediate effect. He will be working alongside CEO, Mr. Tom Drivas, as Appia moves the Company's active 2021 rare earths and uranium exploration programs forward.
Frederick is a highly experienced capital markets and resource executive, having spent the latter part of his career as a senior executive and board member of private and public companies, including as co-founder of a start-up public international oil and gas exploration company. Prior to that he worked as a globally recognized and top-ranked equities analyst, notably at Canaccord Genuity and Haywood Securities. He is a graduate of the University of British Colombia Faculty of Applied Science (Geological Engineering) and the University of Western Ontario (Ivey School of Business).
Tom Drivas, CEO of Appia commented: "We are delighted that Frederick has agreed to bring his wealth of experience to Appia as the Company's new President. Appia is at a pivotal moment in its exploration/exploitation program and we believe we are on the verge of unlocking the significant potential of our flagship Alces Lake critical rare earth elements ("CREE") project. With a background in both engineering and capital markets as well as senior management, Frederick has a proven track record in developing value creating strategies in companies. This experience will be vital for our Company as we seek to delineate our critical rare earths assets."
Frederick Kozak, President of Appia, commented: "I am delighted to be joining Appia at this exciting time in its critical rare earths program. The Alces Lake Project encompasses some of the highest-grade monazite-based total and critical rare earth elements and gallium mineralization in the world. There is an industry effort to establish a supply chain of CREE outside of China and the Alces Lake deposit could be a part of that solution. This is a very important year for Appia's field exploration and I am excited to be a part of the team."
Mr. Kozak's appointment as President is subject to acceptance by the Canadian Securities Exchange. As part of his compensation, Mr. Kozak has been granted 1,000,000 stock options exercisable at $0.65 per share for five years vesting over a period of two years.
The Company's focus is on the Alces Lake Project and the Athabasca Basin uranium prospects. Located approximately 34 km east of Uranium City, Saskatchewan, the Alces Lake property hosts some of the highest-grade total and critical rare earth elements and gallium mineralization in the world. CREE is defined here as those rare earth elements that are in short-supply and high-demand for use in permanent magnets and modern electronic applications such as electric vehicles and wind turbines, (i.e: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr) dysprosium (Dy), and terbium (Tb)).
2021 Athabasca Basin Activity
Appia is fully funded and committed to completing the largest exploration and diamond drilling program to date during the summer months of 2021. In excess of 5,000 metres is expected to be drilled at Alces Lake. The Alces Lake project area is 17,577 hectares (43,434 acres) in size and is 100% owned by Appia. The project is located close to an old mining camp with existing support services, such as transportation (i.e., 15 km from the nearest trail), energy infrastructure (hydroelectric power), a 1,200 m airstrip that receives daily scheduled services and access to heavy equipment.
Since detailed exploration began at Alces Lake in 2017, a total of seventy-four (74) REE, gallium and uranium bearing surface zones and occurrences over 45 km have been discovered on the property. To date, less than 1% of the property has been explored with diamond drilling. The property is located in Saskatchewan, the same provincial jurisdiction that plans to develop a "first-of-its-kind" rare earth processing facility in Canada, scheduled to become operational in late 2022.
Plans are being made for the continuing exploration and prospecting for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca Basin on its Loranger, North Wollaston, and Eastside properties. The Company holds the surface rights to exploration for 65,601 hectares (162,104 acres) in Saskatchewan, including Alces Lake.
The Company also has a 100% interest in 12,545 hectares (31,000 acres), with rare earth element and uranium deposits over five mineralized zones in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario. The Camp historically produced over 300 million pounds of U3O8 and is the only Canadian camp that has had significant rare earth element (yttrium) production. The deposits are largely unconstrained along strike and down dip. With the outlook for uranium prices changing to a brighter future, the potential of the Camp will be reviewed this year.
As previously announced, the proposed change in the Company's name to Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. will be subject to the approval by 66 2/3% of votes cast by the shareholders at the Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders to be held on May 18, 2021. The ticker symbols at the different stock exchanges will not be affected by the name change.
Virtual PDAC 2021
Appia is pleased to announce that it is participating in this year's Virtual PDAC from March 8th to 11th and will have a booth in both the Investor's Exchange and in the Core Shack. We will be exhibiting core from our high-grade critical rare earth Alces Lake property in Northwestern Saskatchewan in our Core Shack booth. We hope you can drop in to both of Appia's booths and take a look at the core and get an update on Appia's properties and our exciting drilling and exploration plans for 2021.
About Appia
Appia is a Canadian publicly-listed company in the rare earth element and uranium sectors. The Company is currently focusing on delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements ("REE") and uranium on the Alces Lake property, as well as prospecting for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca Basin on its Loranger, North Wollaston, and Eastside properties. The Company holds the surface rights to exploration for 65,601 hectares (162,104 acres) in Saskatchewan.
The Company also has a 100% interest (subject to a 1% Uranium Production Payment Royalty and a 1% Net Smelter Return Royalty on any precious or base metals payable, provided that the price of uranium is greater than US$130 per pound) in 12,545 hectares (31,000 acres), with rare earth element and uranium deposits over five mineralized zones in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario. The Camp historically produced over 300 million pounds of U3O8 and is the only Canadian camp that has had significant rare earth element (yttrium) production. The deposits are largely unconstrained along strike and down dip.
Appia has 92.5 million common shares outstanding, 109.2 million shares fully diluted.
For more information, visit Appia's website at www.appiaenergy.ca
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This News Release contains forward-looking statements which are typically preceded by, followed by or including the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "intends", "plans" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward- looking statements and shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such statements.
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For further information, please contact:
Tom Drivas, CEO and Director: (cell) 416-876-3957, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) appia@appiaenergy.ca
Frederick Kozak, President: (cellular) 403-606-3165 or (email) fkozak@appiaenergy.ca
Frank van de Water, Chief Financial Officer and Director, (tel) 416-546-2707, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) fvandewater@rogers.com
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/76413