Mining MarketWatch

Feature article April 25, 2024:

QI Materials Corp. Poised to Ride the Coming Hydrogen Energy Wave with Its St. Lawrence Project Now a Focus of INRS

Québec Innovative Materials Corp.

(CSE: QIMC) (Frankfurt: 7FJ)

Share data, Capitalization, & Corporate info

Shares Outstanding: 73.91 million

Recently Traded: ~CDN$0.04/share (CSE:QIMC)

52 Week High/Low: ~$0.06/ 0.01

Current Market Cap.: ~$3 million Canadian

Corporate Website: qimaterials.com

Valuation Commentary: Québec Innovative Materials Corp. (CSE: QIMC) (Frankfurt: 7FJ) (a.k.a. QI Materials) is a Canadian-based mineral exploration and development company with a diversified portfolio of natural resource assets such as high-grade silica, hydrogen, and helium. QIMC is working toward becoming a sustainable supplier of resources which are essential in advanced batteries and the electrification of the new green economy. QI Materials is turning a number of heads for being highly-prospective for major discovery of natural occurring hydrogen and helium.

CSE:QIMC presents exceptional value and could easily move to be trading, in the near-term, several multiples higher than its current share price: QIMC currently has a nominal market cap of ~C$3M (~73.91 million shares trading near ~C$0.04).

QI Materials has a 100% interest in the St. Lawrence Hydrogen Project (consisting of 248 claims, 14,257 hectares on three mineral claims) located in Quebec.

The Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique ("INRS"), a high-level research and training institute, is working in collaboration with QI Materials Corp. Following Professor Richer-LaFlèche's suggestions in 2022, QIMC has developed a strategy for acquiring properties in regions affected by rift zones intersecting Precambrian rocks rich in potassic, ultramafic and iron formations. These structural zones are associated with the presence of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, which by analogy with hydrocarbon host systems, could contain reservoir rocks and impermeable units essential to the preservation of hydrogen and/or helium.

In 2024, QIMC, in collaboration with INRS, plans to carry out a first phase of exploration for white hydrogen and helium on these vast properties located in Témiscamingue, near the Quebec-Ontario border (Fig. 1), and in Lac St-Jean (Fig. 2).

An intervention protocol coupling soil gas geochemistry, geophysics and optical and Lidar drone imaging is currently being developed by INRS to provide QIMC with an optimal exploration strategy considering the large surface areas of the Companies properties.

Figure 2. (above) -- A) Elevation map of the Saquenay region and adjacent Precambrian terrains. B) Simplified geological map of the Saguenay rift area. QIMC's exploration permits are shown in red on the map.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7968/206608_881b032a84708807_003full.jpg

About naturally occurring hydrogen and helium: Naturally occurring hydrogen and helium form from chemical and nuclear reactions deep underground. It is an attractive, sustainable energy option because, in addition to being a clean fuel, hydrogen may occur as a modern-day replenishing resource, unlike a hydrocarbon reservoir (natural gas, oil, etc.) which depletes.

Helium is a noble gas with distinctive chemical and physical properties for different scientific, industrial and bio-medical applications. It is an essential element of medical scanners (magnetic resonance imaging, MRI), which is used to cool powerful magnets. Liquid helium is also used to cool certain metals to the extremely low temperatures required for electrical superconductivity. Furthermore, Helium is used as a protective atmosphere during the growth of monocrystalline silicon intended to manufacture integrated circuits and optical fibres.

The government of Québec has recently announced the Québec Green Hydrogen and Bioenergy Strategy, which has the purpose of creating a favourable environment to accelerate the production, distribution, and use of hydrogen. More information can be found through this link: Québec Green Hydrogen Strategy (Québec Green Hydrogen and Bioenergy Strategy | Gouvernement du Québec (quebec.ca)).

More about the INRS and Pr. Marc Richer-LaFlèche, P.Geo.: Pr. Richer-LaFlèche's team has exceptional geological, geochemical and geophysical experience specifically in the regions of QIMC's newly acquired claims. They have carried out over six years of geophysical and geochemical work and collected thousands of C1-C4 Soil-Gas analyses.

M. Richer-LaFlèche also holds an FRQNT grant, in partnership with Quebec MRN and the mining industry, to develop and optimize a Soil-Gas method for the direct detection of mineralized bodies and faults under Quaternary cover. In addition to sulphide gases, hydrogen was systematically analyzed in the numerous surveys carried out in 2023 in Abitibi, Témiscamingue and also in the Quebec Appachian.

In addition, the INRS team has several portable gas spectrometers and the sampling equipment and logistics necessary for taking gas samples and geophysical measurements on the ground or in the aquatic environment.

High-Grade Silica Projects -- Valuable assets in abeyance, awaiting production demand (once next-gen high-purity silica technology applications come online).

QI Materials has an impressive portfolio of high-grade SiO2 properties in Ontario and Quebec that it is able to advance toward a near-term industrial mining production scenario when market demand for high-purity silica comes of age. QI Materials currently has a pilot silica processing plant, able to produce custom products to meet prospective partners specification.

HPQ Silicon Inc. ("HPQ"): MOU signed regarding the procurement of Quartz from QI Material's Charlevoix Silica Project. Additionally, QI Materials has entered into a Right of First Refusal ("ROFR") agreement with HPQ which allows HPQ the ROFR to purchase the first 10,000 tons of high-grade silica material extracted from a QI Materials silica project.

Ekopav: MOU signed March 2023 regarding the procurement of silica sands for production of asphalt products.

Next steps at key projects to be taken, once clients indicate demand readiness:

● Perform a hybrid detailed exploration/geotechnical drill program in order to delineate a resource and design the quarry.

Note: River Valley has no permitting issues, it hosts a substantial quarryable body of 98% - 99.9+% pure SiO2 proximal roads and rail infrastructure.

Charlevoix Silica Project, Quebec:

● Conduct exploration drilling on newly discovered zones 4, 5, and 6 to evaluate the size, geometry, depth, and width of the quartzite formation and determine if they are continuously connected to one another.

The new discovery zones at Charlevoix are high-purity and are confirmed without permitting issues, 100% outside any hunting & fishing zec. Property zones will be stripped clean and various surveys conducted as needed with the intention of going operational; so far zones 4 and 5 have been mapped in detail, cleaned off, channel sampled, and over 120m of strike length is now exposed at surface. The true thickness and width of the quartzite formation is currently unknown as the contacts are buried beneath overburden, however we can observe 5-10 metres high quartzite walls in certain areas. On October-2023 QI Materials announced that it has received a permit to further expand work on its high grade on surface Charlevoix Silica Project. It was an 8 month process and further expands the capacity to deliver even more high-grade material. This permitting is in line with the Québec government’s green supply chain strategy, and expands the QIMC’s operations and ability to deliver even more high-grade silica to clients.

Demand for reliable high-purity quartz/silica feed is increasingly critical for companies such as:

Unlike traditional mining mineral resources (such as gold), which require copious amounts of drilling, silicon dioxide is industrial quartzite and a massive voluminous resource is able to be blocked out quickly with a few 100m drill holes (~1,000 m total should suffice), also these type of bodies are typically operated for multiple decades and the grades/quality get better with depth (where there is less weathering and impurities). The hard part (which QIMC has already accomplished) is to find the right combination of purity, consistency, access, permitting, and infrastructure -- the actual extraction of material is typically inexpensive (as its quarry-style mining), it is the transportation costs that can quickly add up. At River Valley its a short trip down the highway and onto established rail network, and at Charlevoix it is only ~3.5 hours by road to Montreal (where HPQ, and other manufacturers are along the Saint Lawrence). In-short, economics are expected to be robust (once demand kicks in).

Figure 3a. (above) -- QIMC has various grades and types of feed stock, mined from its Charlevoix project, prepped and ready for delivery to clients requiring silica according to spec. Visible in the image above in the bags up front and in the insets are large crystalline-like chunks that are milled to specification; in HPQ Silicon Inc.'s case they are very specific: X size, at X grade, X-sort of dimension, roundness angularity, etc. -- reports are HPQ is very pleased with the product being delivered and explains why HPQ entered a ROFR agreement with QI Materials. In the image above, any weathered look is attributed to surface exposure -- simply crack below the surface and the silica is much more translucent white. The rows of bags further to the back are finer material, a by-product of processing the main batch -- this material would go to a different client such as an asphalt company; no waste.

Figure 3b. (above) -- QIMC's pilot mobile silica refining processing plant for custom batches, with inset of current world market pricing* (*annotated by Mining MarketWatch Journal). HPQ is able to take the feed from QIMC and upgrade it using proprietary technology to US$500 - $5000/tonne range product, HPQ can produce the value-added product significantly cheaper and more environmentally friendly than any current process being employed now in the world.

This project was recently acquired September-2023 (click here for related news release). This is a remarkably good project, news flow should be steady from QIMC as it is quickly advances toward large-scale operational quartz/silica quarry status.

See related October 24, 2023 news release "Qi Materials Starts Preliminary Modelling of High-grade Silica Projects"; The QI Materials field team has completed the first pass of field exploration and development work on the Company’s wholly owned River Valley Silica project, located in the Sudbury mining division of Ontario, Canada. The Company is now processing the data and commencing preliminary modelling and quarry designs.

The following figures depict examples of the visually highly pure quartz samples recovered from the quartz vein:

Figure 3 c. (above) - Visual high purity quartz samples from River Valley Project quartz vein (source: October 24, 2023 corporate update news release).

Figure 3 d. (above) - Quartz outcrops with technicians performing detailed topographic survey (source: October 24, 2023 corporate update news release).

The QI Materials team performed a variety of work scopes in the advancement of this project which included:

The Company also performed a site visit with the engineering team from OptiSim Mining Solutions, of Sudbury, Ontario (See news release Oct-11-2023) for the purpose of preliminary quarry design, engineering, and permitting.

Figure 4. Key mapped quartzite surface expression from historical report (*historical reports: PDF-2019 & PDF-2004)

The River Valley Silica Project is host to a high purity quartz vein. Publically available historical* purity results and mapping indicate that the quartz vein is up 99.9% pure SiO2. Historical* mapping indicates that the quartz vein is over 300m long and over 40m wide.

Figure 5. (above) Historical Results; enlarged image of SiO2 section from lab assay table results from the 2019 report. Site visit by professional geologist Raymond Wladichuk, CEO of Qi Materials, confirms that these historical reports appear to be accurate;

Excerpt from December 12, 2023 news release "QI Materials Confirms High Grade Silica Purity over 99.5% at the River Valley Silica Project"; In October 2023, the QI Materials field team collected roughly 75 channel samples from surface exposure. As shown on the attached Table 1, 19 of the samples collected are over 99% pure SiO2, with the highest being 99.52% and, the average across the sample set being 98.72% SiO2. It is expected that a degree of contamination from surface contamination (surface water infiltrating cracks and fractures, oxidation, and surface debris) is likely affecting these results.

Figure 6. (above) Location Map of River Valley Silica Property with inset claims map (different scale) -- 65 kilometres north east (as the crow flies) from the world-class mining camp of Sudbury, Ontario. It is easily accessed by existing road infrastructure, and a short trip to the River Valley network of rail transfer stations. The Property covers an area of approximately 47 hectares.

Figure 8. (above) Map of Charlevoix Silica Project showing zones -- The new Zones 3, 4, 5, & 6 are 100% located outside the hunting and fishing zec, thus large-scale permitting is no different than neighbour Sitec Mine, just across the highway, which is the largest employer in this mining-friendly region. Sitec quarries high-end quartz countertop material and has operated for over 50 years.

Figure 9 a & b. (above) Aerial photograph of the Charlevoix Silica Project Main Zone 1.

In the summer and fall of 2022, the Company stripped the overburden off the Main Zone silica outcrop (Figure 1). A series of 16 channels were cut across the stratigraphy and sampled at one (1) metre long intervals as seen in Figure 2. Approximately 50% of the channel samples were sent to ALS Global for purity analysis, the remaining samples were delivered to the Institute National Research Scientifique (INRS) in Québec City for further analysis. The results of the purity analysis suggest that the majority of the Main Zone outcrop is comprised of high-grade silica, returning an average grade of 98%, with purity ranging as high a 99.88% SiO2; see related April 26, 2023 news release entitled "QI Materials Reports High-Grade Results from Channel Sampling".

See related August 29, 2023 news release "QI Materials Announces Assays over 99% SiO2 from Newly Discovered Zones at the Charlevoix Silica Project"; The QI Materials field team's mapping and prospecting efforts have led to the discovery of newly found quartzite outcroppings with remarkably high purity grade. The new zones currently named zones 3, 4, and 5 occur approximately one kilometre northeast of zones 1 and 2. According to SIGEOM, the ministry of Quebec's public natural resources database, the new zones are located outside of the Zec des MartresSeven (7) samples were delivered to ALS Global's lab in Val d'Or, Québec where they underwent purity analysis. These samples were selected from various locations on the outcrops and averaged over 98% SiO2 ranging from 97% to over 99%:

Figure 10a&b. (above) Photos of Quartzite Samples from New Zone -- The majority of the samples collected from the new zones are of beautiful, clear, near-crystalline quartzite.

See related October 24, 2023 news release "Qi Materials Starts Preliminary Modelling of High-grade Silica Projects"; The QI Materials team is currently at the Charlevoix Silica Project completing the final field work of the season. The team is following up on the newly discovered high grade zones announced in August 2023 (See news release). The scope of this program includes:

3) Ville Marie Property, Québec - 100%-owned - check back later for update on this project.

QI Materials Update on Roncevaux Silica Property Exploration

Lachute, Québec--(Newsfile Corp. - January 10, 2024) - Québec Innovative Materials Corp. (CSE: QIMC) (FSE: 7FJ) ("QI Materials", "QIMC", or the "Company") provides an update on the Roncevaux Silica Property.

As disclosed in the Company's August 31, 2022 news release, Qi Materials acquired mineral claims from HPQ Silicon Inc. (HPQ"), including the Roncevaux Silica Property. The Qi Materials team performed a recent site visit to the property in late October 2023.

"We would like to thank our partner HPQ for this opportunity to further develop this asset and meet their growing high grade silica demand," stated John Karagiannidis, Executive Chairman.

Roncevaux Silica Property
The Ronceveux Silica Property consists of a high purity quartz vein located in southern Quebec, approximately 50km from Amqui, Quebec, as shown on Figure 1. The property consists of 27 mineral claims totalling 1570 hectares. Samples were collected by means of existing trenches found on the property. The quartz vein is estimated to potentially be over 300m long with the width being unknown but likely 10's of metres wide (as suggested by historical work and reports).

"We believe this is another significant addition to our growing high grade silica Quebec portfolio," stated Raymond Wladichuk, CEO.

Historical work conducted by HPQ Silicon Inc. indicates that the purity of the quartz vein is as high as 99.8% SiO2. HPQ conducted testing on the quartz material from this property and concluded that it was able to be converted to silicon metal by means of their patented processes.

The recent samples collected by the Qi Materials field team indicate that visually, this appears to be accurate (Photos in Figure 2 below). Tens of kilograms of samples have been collected for testing and analysis by the Company.

Figure 1 — Roncevaux property location, southern Quebec.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7968/193756_f16e397ed4999acf_002full.jpg

Figure 2 — Roncevaux high grade silica samples.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7968/193756_f16e397ed4999acf_003full.jpg

The author of one of the historical reports acquired by means of SIGEOM (the Quebec government's publicly available geoscience database) provides an estimated tonnage of over 400,000 tonnes of quartz material (if extrapolated to a depth of 50m) (this is a non-43-101 compliant estimate and extracted from publically available data such as historical assessment reports, prospecting reports, etc.).

Please be advised that a qualified person has not completed sufficient work to classify any mineral resources as defined by National Instrument (NI) 43-101; it is therefore uncertain if future exploration will result in the delineation of mineral resources. ...

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