Dear Critical Metals Shareholders, VRP Partners & Friends,

Introduction

We’re grateful for your support, thank you.

Please click here to view a short update on the Vanadium Recovery Project (VRP) and click here for the latest VRP Presentation.

Security of Supply

The European Commission identified vanadium as a "Critical Raw Material" for strategic technologies and sectors in 2017. Europe does not produce vanadium and is reliant on Russian vanadium. The VRP planned for Pori, Finland is Europe’s only development ready vanadium project and its therefore critically important the project is developed.

Raw Materials

Critical Metals is proud to be working alongside SSAB and H2 Green Steel contributing into the EU’s circular economy action plan by using by-products from the steel making process as the basis for a long life (+20 year) high purity vanadium pentoxide (>99.9% V2O5) production project.

To recap, on 30 March 2020 (more than two years ago) Critical Metals and SSAB signed a conditional agreement for the supply of 2 million tonnes of LD-slag (raw materials) to the VRP. On 5 July 2022 Critical Metals and SSAB signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) contemplating SSAB supplying additional volumes of raw materials to the VRP. This recent LOI is strong evidence of the parties’ desire to support each other during the current geopolitical crisis in Europe. Critical Metals and SSAB plan to meet this Quarter to discuss converting the LoI into a binding agreement.

On 9 September 2021 (nearly 12 months ago) Critical Metals and H2 Green Steel AB (H2GS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) contemplating the supply of 4 million tonnes of raw materials to the VRP. On 1 July 2022 the Environmental Court in Umeå, Sweden approved the permissibility for the H2GS steel plant meaning H2GS can start construction groundwork this European summer. Now that the environmental permit has been granted Critical Metals and H2GS can discuss converting the MoU into a binding agreement.

Permitting

Critical Metals anticipates receiving a decision on its environmental permit application in September 2022. An announcement will be made when a written decision is published by Finnish authorities.

Sales Agreements

Vanadium pentoxide samples from the VRP have now been successfully tested by independent third parties in the manufacture of electrolyte for use in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) and the manufacture of lithium-vanadium cathode material for use in electric vehicles. The focus will now be on securing letters of intent from vanadium users for the vanadium pentoxide produced from the VRP.

By-product samples from the VRP continue to be analysed by Betolar pursuant to a letter of intent signed on 23 March 2022. Results from the research on a bulk sample of the by-product are anticipated late in the Quarter. Betolar is investigating the utilisation of slag from the steel industry in the production of cement-free concrete.

Corporate

To recap, on 6 April 2020 Critical Metals and Neometals Ltd (ASX:NMT) signed a Co-operation Agreement where it was agreed among other matters that Neometals would fund and manage the VRP evaluation activities, including the completion of Class 5, 4 and 3 AACE engineering cost and feasibility studies (Joint Studies) up to consideration of an investment decision, which, if positive, would lead to a 50:50 incorporated joint venture (JV). The determination whether to form a JV is a decision for each party’s respective board of directors. If a decision is made to form the JV, Critical and Neometals will negotiate in good faith a formal shareholders agreement under which the parties will be entitled to maintain their relative equity by contributing capital in proportion to their respective ownership interests in the JV. A Steering Committee comprising two members from both Critical Metals and Neometals has been overseeing development of the VRP.

Pursuant to the Co-operation Agreement, Neometals’ subsidiary, Avanti Materials Ltd will enter into a processing technology licence agreement with the JV pursuant to which it will be entitled to a gross revenue royalty on sales of all recycled products.

Neometals is Critical Metals' largest shareholder and holds 19.05% of its issued capital.

On 7 July 2022 Neometals released results of an engineering cost study for the VRP. The study concluded that the VRP was placed in the lowest quartile of the industry cost curve and that a plant with 300,000 tonnes per annum throughput of raw materials would cost approximately US$341 million (including a 15% contingency). Critical Metals would like to acknowledge the Neometals Team for producing a professional study completed to a high standard.

Neometals plan to deliver the VRP feasibility study (FS) which includes investment return metrics when the LoI between Critical Metals and SSAB is converted into a binding agreement.

Funding

The VRP Steering Committee have resolved to appoint a well-regarded Finnish investment bank to facilitate debt finance for the VRP. This will most likely be completed after consideration of the FS results.

Critical Metals has independently initiated discussions to fund its pro-rata contribution to the equity component of the VRP should the respective boards of directors, acting independently resolve to form the JV.

Next Steps

There are several matters that need to be considered, resolved, and negotiated in the second half of 2022 including non-binding letters of intent / memorandums of understanding (SSAB, H2 Green Steel and Betolar), board resolutions whether to form the VRP joint venture (Critical Metals and Neometals), a potential joint venture shareholder agreement (with Neometals) and technology license agreement (with a subsidiary of Neometals).

Critical Metals is committed to the VRP and is focussed on successfully bringing it into production with its VRP partners. It’s acknowledged by many in Europe that this “moment in time” requires governments, suppliers, financiers, licensees, employees, and owners to work collaboratively to ensure everyone’s environmental, social, governance and corporate objectives are met as far as possible. As can be seen from this summary there are many parties acting in good faith with a view to successfully bringing the VRP into production – onwards.

We would also like to ackowledge the recent resignation of non-executive director Darren Townsend. It was a pleasure working with Darren and we respect his decision to resign based on the numerous conflicts he faced as both a director of Critical Metals and key employee of Neometals.

Please follow Critical Metals on LinkedIn and Twitter and share this summary with colleagues and friends who might be interested in supporting the VRP.

Best regards,

Damian Hicks
Executive Director
Critical Metals Ltd