Demonstrates successful simulated full-scale processing of battery graphite
CENTENNIAL, Colo., June 2, 2020 – Westwater Resources, Inc. (Nasdaq: WWR), an energy materials development company, announced today that independent testing of its ULTRA-PMG™ battery graphite material has shown outstanding resistivity values as a conductive additive.
Christopher M. Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “This milestone achievement is a critical step in developing our battery graphite business. We have shown that one of the key products in our business plan – purified micronized graphite (ULTRA-PMG™) – can be produced using proprietary processes that we intend to utilize in our pilot program later this year. Successful performance testing demonstrates that we can manufacture our ULTRA-PMG™ as a premium-grade, conductive enhancement material for all types of batteries at larger scale.”
Westwater’s ULTRA-PMG™ product has been produced by laboratory-scale equipment simulating the full-scale processing flowsheet. Westwater has been working with Dorfner AnzaPlan in Germany to commercialize processing technology to produce various sizes of ULTRA-PMG™ products. Samples from Dorfner were sent to Polaris Laboratories, an independent laboratory in the United States, for testing to evaluate the performance of the product. This testing consisted of resistivity testing utilizing “4T sensing”, standard for measuring resistivity for the international battery industry. The 4T sensing testing method measures the performance of a sample accurately by using separate pairs of current carrying and voltage sensing electrodes.
- 1-Resistivities achieved from our first simulation samples were very desirable, especially for the finer size ULTRA-PMG™.
- 2-The results show superior or comparable resistivity values reported by other manufacturers.
- 3-Additional optimization of the process flowsheet will further enhance the resistivity values.
- 4-Westwater’s ULTRA-PMG™ products can be used by the battery industry as conductivity enhancement material.
About Westwater Resources
Westwater Resources (NASDAQ: WWR) is focused on developing energy-related materials. The Company’s battery-materials projects include the Coosa Graphite Project — the most advanced natural flake graphite project in the contiguous United States — and the associated Coosa Graphite Mine located across 41,900 acres (~17,000 hectares) in east-central Alabama. In addition, the Company maintains lithium mineral properties in prospective lithium brine basins in Nevada and Utah. Westwater’s uranium projects are located in Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, the Company has two licensed and currently idled uranium processing facilities and approximately 11,000 acres (~4,400 hectares) of prospective in-situ recovery uranium projects. In New Mexico, the Company controls mineral rights encompassing approximately 188,700 acres (~76,000 hectares) in the prolific Grants Mineral Belt, which is one of the largest concentrations of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world. Incorporated in 1977 as Uranium Resources, Inc., Westwater also owns an extensive uranium information database of historic drill hole logs, assay certificates, maps, and technical reports for the western United States. For more information, visit www.westwaterresources.net.
Cautionary Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” and other similar words. All statements addressing events or developments that WWR expects or anticipates will occur in the future, including but not limited to statements relating to developments and future production from the Coosa Project, including development of a pilot plant in 2020, and the future performance and optimization of, and market for, the Company’s graphite products, and the potential for partnering opportunities or project finance for the Company’s projects, are forward-looking statements. Because they are forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and uncertainties. These risk factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, (a) the Company’s ability to successfully integrate Alabama Graphite Corporation’s business into its own, and the risk that additional analysis of the Coosa Graphite Project may result in revisions to the findings of WWR’s initial optimization study; (b) the Company’s ability to raise additional capital in the future; (c) spot price and long-term contract price of graphite, lithium, vanadium and uranium; (d) risks associated with our operations and the operations of our partners such as Dorfner AnzaPlan and Polaris Laboratories, including the impact of COVID-19; (e) operating conditions at the Company’s projects; (f) government and tribal regulation of the graphite industry, the lithium industry, the vanadium industry, the uranium industry, and the power industry, and government support for domestic uranium production and nuclear power; (g) world-wide graphite, lithium, vanadium and uranium supply and demand, including the supply and demand for lithium-based batteries; (h) maintaining sufficient financial assurance in the form of sufficiently collateralized surety instruments; (i) unanticipated geological, processing, regulatory and legal or other problems the Company may encounter in the jurisdictions where the Company operates or intends to operate, including in Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada; (j) the ability of the Company to enter into and successfully close acquisitions or other material transactions; (k) the results of the Company’s lithium brine exploration activities at the Columbus Basin and Sal Rica projects, and the possibility that future exploration results may be materially less promising than initial exploration result; (i) any graphite, lithium, vanadium or uranium discoveries not being in high-enough concentration to make it economic to extract the metals; (m) currently pending or new litigation or arbitration; and (n) other factors which are more fully described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of the Company’s underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue reliance should not be placed on the Company’s forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release.
