News

Vancouver, British Columbia, January 22, 2021 – Huntsman Exploration Inc. (TSXV: HMAN; US:BBBMD) (the “Company” or “Huntsman”) is pleased to announce the following updates to exploration and drilling activities at its Canegrass Nickel project in Western Australia.

Drilling Preparation. Drill pad preparation has been completed, and the Company anticipates arrival of the drill rig on site and operations for the 18-hole drill program to commence the week of the 25^th of January.

MLEM Survey. The Company will be commencing a Moving Loop Electromagnetic (MLEM) survey at the Canegrass nickel project on portions of the property where previous air and ground based EM data was limited.  GEM Geophysics have been contracted to perform the work, expected to commence in the next 10 days. The proposed work is designed to detect massive sulphide accumulations proximal to the Shepherds Discordant Zone (SDZ) and at depth.  Given that there are no sedimentary horizons within the area and that all conductors detected and drilled have been mineralized, any bedrock conductor that is detected will be considered highly prospective.  The MLEM program will concentrate on areas A-B west of the shear zone, with additional work on areas C and D to follow.

Peter Dickie, President and CEO for Huntsman, commented, “We continue to see a very high degree of interest in the upcoming drilling at Canegrass as we work to expand on the great successes of the 2018 program. It’s worth noting that, during our prior drill program, we had 100% mineralization hit rate when targeting survey anomalies. For that reason, concurrent with the drilling of our remaining, untested anomalies, we are initiating a new survey that will increase our knowledge of key, additional areas of the property. We have always believed in the long-term prospects for nickel and other battery metals at Canegrass, and our work this year will be instrumental in helping to increase shareholder value.”

Canegrass High-Grade Nickel Project, Western Australia

• High-grade nickel, copper, PGE and vanadium mineralization.
• Multiple, high-grade, near-surface drill results.
• Drilling success to date has been following up EM survey anomalies. More anomalies remain to be drill tested.
• Attractive Chemistry: Multi-element rock and soil sampling (historical).
• Located in the Windimurra Intrusive Complex, road accessible and 500 km from tidewater

Upcoming Drill Program. The upcoming program will include a planned initial 18 holes (3,160 m) of Reverse Circulation (RC) and Diamond (Core) drilling, which will follow up on 2018 successes and begin to test new, high priority areas, as illustrated in the Company’s release dated January 5, 2021.  The new program is designed to drill untested conductors identified in surface geophysics and to continue assessing the extent of the Ni-Cu (Co) mineralization intersected in the previous campaign, including targeting the off-hole DHEM anomalies.

2018 drilling highlights include:

• BBRC001 (Winx) 14m @ 1.17% Ni, 0.88% Cu, 0.05% Co, 463ppb Pd and 375ppb Pt from 65m, including 1m @ 2.70% Ni, 0.23% Cu, 0.12% Co, 751ppb Pd and 723 ppb Pt.
• BBDD001 (Sunline) 0.57m @ 3.07 % Ni, 0.62% Cu and 0.24% Co from 144.1m.
• BBDD002 (Tulloch) 14.25m @ 0.69% Ni, 0.82% Cu and 0.05% Co from 243.2, including 4.9m @ 1.33% Ni, 1.26% Cu and 0.10% Co. 

All 2018 drill holes returned anomalous values of Ni, Cu, Co and were open along strike and at depth.  A limited number of holes in the 2018 program were also assayed for PGE’s, with results noted above.  The Company is exploring the potential to re-assay historic core in an effort to determine potential for PGE’s in additional areas.  Downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) testing identified anomalies in several holes, strongly suggesting mineralization is more extensive than intersected, which will be tested in the upcoming drill program.

In addition, the Company is in receipt of the previously reported Heritage study completed by AHA Logic in early January.  The study was undertaken to confirm compliance with the Company’s knowledge of the property, and to ensure compliance with the Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972.  Huntsman’s Australian Consultants, Newexco Exploration Pty Ltd. (“Newexco”), accompanied representatives from AHA Logic as they perform the site visit.  Results of the study note that within the exploration work areas the authors did not identify any Aboriginal cultural material sites. 

The Company also wishes to announce the creation of an Advisory Committee.  The purpose and function of this Committee will be to provide a sounding board and advisory services to Huntsman on both financial and technical aspects of developing Huntsman’s Nickel and Gold projects.  We are pleased to announce that the initial appointees to the Committee are Jerome Cliché and Claude Dufresne P.Eng. 

Mr. Cliché is a seasoned corporate advisor of public companies in areas of financial communication, corporate finance, investment and business development. He was a co-founder of Renmark Financial Communication, a Montreal based company offering a wide range of integrated investor relations and financial communications services to small, medium, and large cap public companies trading on all major North American exchanges.  Since 2003, Mr. Cliche has specialized in emerging public companies where he can have significant influence on management for companies with attractive valuations and little or no published research coverage or exposure in the investment community.

Claude Dufresne, P. Eng., is recognized worldwide for his expertise in the niobium market and was responsible for the sale and marketing of ferro-niobium produced by the Niobec mine in Quebec from 2001 to 2012. In 2007, Mr. Dufresne founded Camet Metallurgy Inc., a company specialized in the sale and marketing of various metals. He participated in economic studies on a number of rare earths, niobium, manganese and bauxite projects and acted as a supplier of various raw material for the steel industry. Prior to that, Mr. Dufresne served as Director of Marketing at IAMGOLD, and he worked for 10 years as a metallurgist and mill superintendent for Cambior in Quebec and in Guyana. Mr. Dufresne graduated from Laval University in 1991 with a degree in mining engineering with a specialty in mineral processing, and he is a member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec. He has been President, CEO and director of Niobay Metals Inc. since June 2014.

The Company advises that has granted incentive stock options under its stock option plan to consultants of the Company authorizing the purchase of 200,000 common shares at a price of $0.30 per share for a period of three years from the date of grant. The options are subject to acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The technical content of this news release with respect to Canegrass has been reviewed and approved by Nathan Tribble, P.Geo., a director of the Company and a Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101. The qualified person has not yet visited the Canegrass Project and therefore has not yet verified the data disclosed, including sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the information or opinions contained in the written disclosure.

On Behalf of the Board of Huntsman Exploration Inc.

Peter Dickie
President and Chief Executive Officer

For more information, please contact 1-855-584-0160 or [email protected].

Neither TSX Venture Exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange nor their 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.

Forward Looking Statements: Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainness and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.