COMINIERE SA denies USD 70 million advance by AVZ as cost of feasibility study for Manono Lithium project, page-30

Some translation:

Q4. Cominière accuses AVZMinerals Ltd of having taken the project hostage in that it conducted theresearch without associating it from beginning to end, of not having actuallycarried out the research and consequently Cominière learned of the existence ofthe Feasibility Study like everyone else through the press.

Answer: AVZ claims that it did not hold the project hostage and insists that contrary to the defamatory and slanderous allegations, Cominiere was indeed represented at all meetings and that there was even evidence and receipts of attendance fees from representatives of the state-owned company at meetings of the Board of Directors including Extraordinary General Meetings/Ordinary General Meetings. The Feasibility Study was submitted on August 3, 2020 and the Final Feasibility Study was not submitted until May 4, 2021, more than ten months later, having cost several tens of millions of U.S. dollars that Dathomir or any other partner dared to invest in the research in hard rock.

The Technical Director and the Management Committee of Cominiere had had several meetings for which emails between the parties exist indicating that they had been aware. It should be noted that the Binding Term Sheet and the JV contract both state that "AVZ was to fund the Joint Venture until the DFS (Definitive Feasibility Study) was submitted", so under the terms of the contract it was AVZ that was to submit the DFS to Dathcom and not Cominière.

Q5. Did Cominière lend 5% of theshares (at the time of Dathcom Mining SAS) to Dathomir in order to enable it toraise the necessary funds for the project?

Answer: The results of the IGF (Inspection Générale des Finances) investigation of April 2022 cleared AVZ and condemned the Cominière management team. The said report of the IGF, a state service linked to the Presidency of the Republic, found that there had been a perfect and irrevocable transfer between the parties concerned and that there had never been a loan of the shares. The agreements between the parties were irrevocable.

Q6. Cominière claims that theCongolese state gained a lot from Zijin's payment of more than US$33 millionand that this was the first time it had received such an amount.

Answer: AVZ clarifies that there was an initialpayment of US$5 million and the remainder was paid later. AVZ is obliged toreveal that it made a much better Offer of an amount exceeding USD 100 million,the entry of the Congolese State to the Australian Stock Exchange, the creationof a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Tanganyika and the Development of worldclass infrastructures through a "Convention de Collaboration" whichwill allow the rehabilitation of the airport, the roads and many other infrastructuresin addition to the value chain.

Q8. Cominière claims that AVZMinerals is dictatorially running Dathcom Mining and that there is no Cominièrerepresentative in the company.

Answer: AVZ asks Cominière to tell the national and international opinion what Messrs. Bupe, Jean Yves (known as the son-in-law of acting DG Athanase Mwamba Misao), acting DG Athanase as well as Pascal Nkanga who represents Dathomir do in Dathcom meetings with AVZ representatives. There is evidence on the minutes of the meetings of which their signatures attest their presence, unless they are ghosts representing Cominiere at the Dathcom meetings.