Alkemy Capital Investments plc and its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Port Hedland Lithium Pty Ltd. ("PHL") announced the completion of a Feasibility Study for Australia's first stand-alone lithium sulphate processing facility, located at the Boodarie Strategic Industrial Area ("SIA"), just outside of Port Hedland, Australia's largest export port. The Feasibility Study has been produced ahead of schedule in response to the due diligence requirements of certain global OEMs looking to utilise and contract with Alkemy's refineries. Alkemy's strategy, through its two wholly-owned subsidiaries, PHL and Tees Valley Lithium Ltd. ("TVL"), is to produce a high value, low carbon intermediate lithium sulphate product in Australia for onward processing in the UK into a premium battery grade product, for sale to Tier 1 customers in the fast growing premium European market.

PHL is developing a stand-alone merchant lithium sulphate refinery at the Boodarie SIA located just south of the proposed new Lumsden Point Critical Minerals Wharf in Port Hedland, the world's largest export port by volume, with established road and rail infrastructure connections to Western Australia's world-class hard-rock lithium resources. Powered by local renewable energy, each of the four proposed lithium sulphate trains at Boodarie will refine approximately 180,000 tpa of locally mined spodumene concentrate to produce 40,000 tpa of lithium sulphate, with lithium content equivalent to 24,000 tpa lithium hydroxide. It is anticipated that lithium sulphate produced by PHL will be processed further by TVL before sale to end customers, although PHL will retain flexibility to provide lithium sulphate to third parties should demand arise.

Conducting the first part of the refining process in Australia minimises the quantity of waste material exported and reduces both the shipping cost and the embedded carbon of the resulting lithium products. At Wilton, in the Teesside Freeport in the north-east of the UK, TVL is establishing Europe's largest low-carbon merchant lithium hydroxide refinery. Each of the four trains at Wilton will take feedstock in the form of lithium sulphate or crude carbonate, to produce 24,000 tpa of battery-grade lithium hydroxide (or carbonate equivalent) feeding directly into the European and international battery cell manufacturers.

This new Pilbara to Teesside supply chain epitomises the new critical minerals supply chains made possible under the recently signed free trade agreement between Australia and the UK and will leverage the competitive strengths of Australia in mining and minerals processing and the UK in chemical refining. The Feasibility Study has been prepared by Wave International, a leading engineering consultancy firm with significant experience in developing lithium refinery projects worldwide. Itis based on a merchant lithium sulphate plant comprising up to four trains over a 30-year life.

The Feasibility Study economic evaluation report clearly demonstrates the robustness of developing a stand-alone lithium sulphate refinery with low capital and processing costs, a low carbon footprint, and strong cash flow generation capacity. When combined with 4 Trains at Wilton, the economic model for both projects shows an NPV of $3.7 billion with gross revenues per annum of $2.4 billion and an IRR of 25%. In May 2023, PHL engaged AECOM Australia to complete an ecological baseline survey for the Boodarie lithium sulphate refinery site.

The survey included a detailed flora and fauna survey of the Boodarie site and the preparation of a full report in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act 1986 and other applicable regulations and standards. The survey identified a number of native species consistent with the wider regional flora and fauna, however importantly no priority or threatened ecological communities or species were recorded during the survey. This baseline ecological assessment recorded and mapped significant environmental values on the Boodarie site and will provide important information for the full environmental approval application to be lodged as part of the Port Hedland lithium sulphate refinery project development.