Trilogy Metals Inc. announced recent research conducted with the assistance of the Colorado School of Mines and the United States Geological Survey has highlighted the potential for germanium to be a by-product during future copper production from the South Reef area of the Bornite copper-cobalt project. Germanium is a critical element with increasing demand in modern technologies and significant supply risks. China, the world's largest producer of germanium, has adopted export controls intended to restrict the export of germanium, among other metals.

Additionally, Ambler Metals LLC (?Ambler Metals?), the joint venture operating company owned equally by Trilogy and South32 Limited, will be providing samples to the School and the USGS to be used in their collaboration on critical minerals in the US. The Bornite project is part of Ambler Metals' Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in northwestern Alaska hich also includes the Arctic copper-zinc-lead-silver-gold project, and surrounding state mining claims and NANA Regional Corporation Inc. lands. Bornite is located approximately 24 km southwest of the Arctic deposit that is envisioned to be served by the Ambler Access Road.

The Bornite deposit has a total Inferred resource of 6.5 billion pounds of copper. It is a carbonate-hosted copper deposit with stacked stratabound mineralized bodies or ?reefs? that include the near surface Lower and Upper Reefs, that together have an In-Pit Inferred resource of 170 million tonnes grading 1.14% copper (using a 0.5% copper cut-off) and the deeper and higher-grade Ruby Zone and South Reef area.

South Reef has an Inferred resource of 22 Mt at 3.48% copper (using a 1.79% copper cut-off). Germanium at South Reef: Germanium values ranging from <1 to 125 ppm were measured in 84 core samples taken from five drill holes from South Reef as part of a recently completed Master of Science thesis done at the School. The samples, averaging 15 cm in length, were selected to establish the presence of germanium sulphides at South Reef.

Due to the known association between copper sulphides and germanium seen by the USGS in the 1980s, higher copper grades (>5% copper) in the South Reef core were a key criteria in the sampling strategy. Although the samples represent only a small part of the South Reef area, the results clearly demonstrate that germanium is present at levels that are significantly higher than values obtained using a standard analytical method where a volatile germanium compound is lost during reaction with hydrochloric acid. Importantly, the thesis work confirms the close association between the germanium sulphide renierite (Cu10ZnGe2Fe4S16 to Cu11GeAsFe4S16) and copper sulphides, most commonly bornite and chalcocite.

In the 1980s, the USGS identified renierite and germanite (Cu13Ge2Fe2S16) in samples from the Ruby Zone occurring as discrete grains up to 75 microns across, embedded within grains of bornite. The close association with copper sulphides suggests the germanium sulphides will in part be recovered in the copper concentrate during flotation without special or additional processing.