Castle Minerals Limited received results from the final 29 holes of its recently completed 52 hole, 5,353m RC drill program at its Kambale Graphite Project, Ghana. Mineralisation comprising a series of sub-parallel graphitic schist zones has been extended to 2.5km north-south and spans up to 0.5km east-west. It remains open to the north and south and is untested to depth.

Several of the new holes returned additional thick, high-grade and multiple intercepts of graphite such as in 22CKRC052 which intersected 14m at 8.1%TGC from 47m and then a very solid 45m at 11.2%TGC from 66m. Results from all of the holes reinforce expectations that ultimately a series of higher-grade zones will be outlined within a broader but still well mineralised envelope. The RC drill hole locations were mostly guided by a ground HLEM geophysical survey that identified numerous conductive plates, many of which coincide with previously identified graphitic schist.

Drilling of those moderate to steeply dipping plates located outside of the prior defined graphitic schist, in most but not all cases, confirmed extensions and/or parallel zones to mineralisation and therefore the reliability of HLEM as an exploration tool in and around the Kambale camp. Mapping in the broader Kambale area has indicated that a number of other graphitic schists may be present. Core drilling of selected zones in order to retrieve fresh (unweathered) ore samples from higher-grade zones for the second phase of metallurgical test work is being planned to commence in mid-November.

Test work will be undertaken in Perth and will comprise a series of beneficiation, flotation and grinding cycles on composited core to develop a preliminary process flowsheet design that will produce a commercial grade concentrate. This test work concentrate will then be provided to specialists who will determine if it has the right physical and chemical characteristics to be sold into one or more of several concentrate markets, such as EV battery anode manufacturing. Once the core drilling is completed, Castle will move straight into a brought forward 2,500m RC drilling program that had been planned for First Quarter 2023.

This program has been designed to better delineate the now confirmed higher grade zones and to enable a maiden JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate to be undertaken. This estimate is scheduled for delivery in First Quarter 2023 subject to how quickly assays can be received. The emphasis on delineating higher-grade zones and the use of a 5% TGC cut-off in defining better intercepts is reflective of a focus, not on defining as large a resource as possible, but on outlining higher grade zones that will more readily and cost-effectively upgrade into concentrates meeting industry grade requirements, especially for anode production.

At this relatively early stage it is believed that this is where a Kambale graphite derived concentrate is most likely to find a market. The Kambale graphite project is still in the exploration and initial test work evaluation stages and there can be no assumption that a Mineral Resource and, subject to a range of factors, an Ore Reserve of a suitable size, grade and other important characteristics will be defined at Kambale to underpin accommercially viable graphite concentrate producing operation. An Exploration Target estimate based on the recently completed and historical drilling is planned to be delivered in coming weeks.

The Kambale graphite deposit was identified in the 1960s by Russian geologists prospecting for manganese. They undertook a program of trenching and drilled 25 holes to a maximum depth of 25m. A subsequent report noted "two main zones of graphitic schists averaging around 10% to 15% graphite within which there were higher grade zones and that the graphite is the flaky variety with fine crystals.

The mineralisation consists of north-east trending, sub-parallel zones of meta-sediment which is host to the graphitic schists. The Lower Proterozoic Birimian meta sedimentary rocks, namely phyllites, and quartz - biotite schists, generally trend north-easterly and dip between 50o and 75o to the north west. The schists are hosted mainly in granodiorite.

The genesis of the flake graphite in Kambale is believed to be the result of high-grade metamorphism which has converted trapped amorphous carbon into the characteristic fine crystalline layers. Castle reviewed this historical work and a wide-spaced, regional-scale electromagnetic survey dataset inherited from previous licence holder, Newmont Limited. This work outlined a roughly elongate, north- south orientated, ~10km-long region considered prospective for graphitic schist horizons which may host multiple lenses of graphite mineralisation, similar to what is already outlined from drilling and trenching at Kambale.

These lenses or horizons can vary in length and be up to 50m wide, creating substantial deposits of graphite. Encouraged by firm graphite prices in 2012, Castle undertook three consecutive phases of drilling comprising RAB, aircore and reverse circulation. Mapping noted occasional outcrops of manganese and graphitic schist as well as graphite in termite mounds.

In 2012 Castle undertook a very limited program of bench-scale test work on RC chips which was not an ideal sample. The work returned mixed results. Thereafter, little work was undertaken until the more recent improvement in graphite prices prompted a re-evaluation of the Project in early 2021.

In September 2021 Castle reported that preliminary test work on sub-optimal near-surface, weathered graphitic schists yielded very encouraging fine flake graphite concentrate grades of up to 96.4% and recoveries of 88% using a conventional multiple grind and flotation concentration flowsheet. Three excavated and composited samples provided for the test work graded 12.56%, 16.09% and 17.16% total carbon. In March 2022, a ground electromagnetic survey demonstrated a strong correlation between drill confirmed graphite mineralisation and zones of high conductivity.

Several high conductivity zones extending well outside of the existing Inferred Resource boundary were highlighted indicating the possibility of extensions of the known graphitic schists into sparsely or undrilled areas. These areas were tested in late 2022 by a 52-hole 5,353m RC program.