Ann: E25 HPMSM Project Update, page-8

First the bad bits:

• Delays and missing the Dec 2022 quarter and a new timeline of Q1 2023. Will this new timeline be hit?
• No clarity on sites
• No clarity on potential off-take customers
• No clarity on potential site volumes (other than a pretty picture showing potential for 2x production)
• No clarity on the price premium that UHPMSM may get

The good bits:

• E25 has proactively released that the date has slipped (rather than leaving it hanging as to what's happening, but pre-Christmas would have been better)
• Recognition of the expected US demand and flipping to that being the top priority as a first site (there is enough margin in the scoping study that delivering what the potential customers what, where they want it is more important than saving a few pennies in production of the 1st plant)
• The purity is there to look at UHPMSM (Ultra-high purity manganese sulphate monohydroxide). Higher purity typically has a price premium
• Sensible factors are being considered in site selection
• Someone has been appointed to make a site recommendation (Worley Group)
• Someone has been appointed to look at any federal, state and local funding support (EY)
• The timeline for the feasibility study is still only Q1 2023 (Not H1 2023)
• The project timeline still remains having product to market in 2025
• Subject to Assay's the test work was as expected which will provide potential customers increased confidence. If they are going to be designing batteries around high or higher Mn, they will have many hundreds of millions riding on having a reliable source of HPMSM supply.
• Q1 2023 may not mean late March 2023 (it could mean February)

I haven't yet seen any social media chatter around the US treasury interpretations of the inflation reduction act. I'd be surprised if E25 was able to conclude its financing and off-take deal before this was released. Prior to that, companies are presuming their plans would be compliant with the step-up to 80% local provisions and wouldn't fall over due to a part or input making them ineligible due to the foreign entity of concern conditions. It is only when these interpretations are published that they can confirm if their plans will work. When they know they will work, they sign the deals to implement them (part of which is assisting E25's to build a HPMSM from a US site).