Westwater Resources, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the West Florida Resources, Inc. 2023 year-end business update and investor call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Frank Bakker, President and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, moderator, and thanks to those attending our 2023 year-end business update and results call. With me today is Terence Kryan, our Executive Chairman of the Board, and Steve Gates, our Chief Financial Officer. During this presentation, the forward-looking statements we make are based on management's judgments, including, but not limited to, future graphite demand and price forecasts, schedule and cost projections, and economic expectations related to the Calentan graphite plant, the GUSA graphite deposit, and capital raising activities, including the estimated timing of those activities. These and other similar statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties of which a description can be found on slide 2 within this presentation and in our 10-K for 2023 and our other SEC filings. Please read our cautionary statement and realize that actual results may differ materially from what is discussed today. Moving to slide 3. Westwater is an energy technology company focused on producing advanced natural graphite materials in the United States using our proprietary technology, including our patent-pending purification process. Turning to slide four. Westwater has two primary projects, both located in the state of Alabama. Our Calentan graphite plant will process flake graphite into coated spherical purified graphite, or CSPG, utilized in lithium ion batteries from consumer electronics to electric vehicles and other battery applications. Our second project is the GUSA Creve deposit, located approximately 30 miles from the Kelton plant. We believe the close proximity of our two projects, located in the Baring EV belt in the southeastern region of the U.S., positions Westwater to become the first vertical producer of CSPG that is 100% based in the U.S. Moving to slide five. We reached several significant milestones within the past 12 months, including signing our first multi-year off-take agreement with SK Yon, a Tier 1 lithium-ion battery manufacturer. Responding to demand signals from customers, we completed our full debottlenecking study and now anticipate CHPG production of 12,500 metric ton per annum in Phase 1 at the Calentum plant. This is a 67% increase from the planned phase 1 CHPG production announced in March of 2023. And we are able to accomplish this increase in plant production within the 271 million capital budget. Based on customer demand signals and anticipated favorable project economics, we have started our feasibility study on phase 2 of the Calentum plant. and expect to increase the combined production to 50,000 metric ton per annum of CSPG. We will provide an update once we complete the feasibility study. A qualified mine engineering firm completed an initial economic analysis for the GUSA deposit. The analysis shows an anticipated pre-tax NPV of approximately $229 million and an estimated pre-tax IRR of 26.7%. We remain focused on becoming the first U.S.-based, U.S.-domiciled, vertically integrated natural graphite anode supplier and believe the fundamentals of our business remain strong. Turning to slide 6. Graphite is an essential mineral to batteries, especially the lithium-ion battery used in electric vehicles and clean energy storage systems. Graphite in a lithium-ion battery accounts for approximately 50% of the critical minerals by weight. A typical electric vehicle has around 175 to 210 pounds of graphite. The US doesn't have an established domestic supply chain for battery-grade graphite products and is predominantly reliant on imports from China. Recent Chinese export controls on graphite again highlight the critical need for domestic battery-grade graphite production in the US. With our two primary projects, the Calenton plant and the Cusa deposit, we believe Westwater Resources is well positioned to provide local and IRA-compliant supply to battery plants in the U.S. with early market mover advantages. Moving to slide 7. The projected demand growth for lithium-ion batteries, government support for the energy transition, and the dominance of the graphite anode market by China has led the US government to designate graphite as a critical mineral. We believe the recent Chinese export restrictions and additional requirements for graphite exports that began on December 1, 2023 served as another wake-up call for the entire battery supply chain, relying on critical minerals from China. Approximately 90% of today's battery and oak materials come from China. We believe these new restrictions highlight the critical need to establish a reliable graphite supply chain in the US. In addition, on December 1st, the US Department of Energy released proposed guidance on what constitutes a foreign entity of concern within the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Under this guidance, starting in 2025, an electric vehicle is disqualified from receiving the $7,500 clean vehicle tax credit if the EV battery contains any critical mineral extracted, processed, or recycled by a foreign entity of concern, including graphite. The proposed guidance identified China as a foreign entity of concern, and we believe this is a positive step for the U.S. graphite market. And Westwater is committed to be part of the domestic solution to provide domestically sourced IRA-compliant graphite and oak material. And now, I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Steve Gates, to discuss the current graphite market. Steve?

Thanks, Frank. Turning to slide eight, while current adoption rates of EVs and EV demand has been lower than original forecast by auto manufacturers and others, Many still see EVs as a growth sector within automotives and expect EV adoption rates to grow. As a result, we continue to expect that global demand for graphite anode material will strengthen, resulting in a growing supply imbalance for the foreseeable future. Given the government regulations in the U.S. and around the world, Benchmark is forecasting electric vehicles to play a major role in driving the demand for graphite anode material. Moving to slide nine. Many battery cell manufacturers utilize a blend of synthetic and natural graphite. Over the past couple of years, the blend has been around 60% synthetic and 40% natural. However, we are seeing a desire by cell manufacturers to increase the use of natural graphite to take advantage of its energy density properties, its lower cost, and its lower impact on the environment. Synthetic graphite is primarily produced from petroleum or coal needle coke. and requires extreme temperatures to produce. According to Benchmark Minerals, natural graphite anode demand will outpace supply at higher rates than other anode materials, resulting in a supply imbalance for natural graphite as early as next year. Benchmark expects the use of natural graphite to grow to 35 percent of total anode materials by 2035, which represents a 40 percent expected increase compared to 2023. Turning to slide 10. Slide 10 shows the forecasted global supply imbalance just related to natural graphite anode supply. The global demand for natural graphite anode material is expected to grow to approximately 1.2 million metric tons in 2030 and to more than 2 million metric tons per year by 2035. The question is, with the new Chinese export restrictions on graphite and the IRA and the FEOC guidance, where are cell manufacturers and EV automakers going to get IRA compliant graphite anode material or CSPG? Based on our recent conversations with customers, they're concerned with sourcing non-FEOC and IRA compliant CSPG for their US battery manufacturing plants. Westwater has been at the forefront end of this market dynamic for a number of years. We believe the progress we've made in developing our product, producing samples, customer engagement, the construction progress on phase one, and signing our first multi-year offtake agreement gives Westwater a competitive early market advantage over new entrants into the natural graphite anode market. And this is why customer engagement remains strong, which we will touch on later in the presentation. Turning to slide 11. Flake graphite and CSPG prices decreased in 2023. But the value created in processing flake into CSPG remains strong and is forecasted to remain strong by third-party sources like benchmark minerals. This was one of the reasons that we took a slightly different approach than other companies by developing our Kellyton graphite processing plant first and planning to develop our KUSA graphite deposit second. And now I'd like to turn the call back to our CEO, Frank Bacher, for a business update. Frank?