Zentek's Subsidiary Albany Graphite Meets Standards for High-Return Markets

Zentek's wholly-owned subsidiary, Albany Graphite received final results indicating that its ultra-high purity Albany graphite meets the threshold for applications in a range of high-return markets, including: nuclear energy; defense and national security infrastructure; advanced aerospace and hypersonics; and premium lithium-ion batteries. This follows on previous press releases which confirmed that Albany graphite achieved five-nines purity with an equivalent boron concentration of 2.60 ppm, meeting the less-than-3-ppm threshold generally referenced for nuclear applications. The latest independent testing of Albany graphite bricks represents the culmination of the current stage of AGC's nuclear suitability program and further validate Albany's broader ultra-high-purity performance. In practical terms, these results re-affirm that the unique Albany graphite material can perform to the same demanding standards as the specialized graphite blocks used in advanced nuclear reactors and other critical systems, a capability historically possessed by synthetic graphite supplied almost entirely from foreign states. Independent market research estimates that the global ultra-high-purity graphite market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 10.5% through 2030, driven by lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, advanced nuclear reactors and high-temperature aerospace components. Independent market and policy work further indicates that purified natural graphite is the fastest-growing part of the natural graphite segment, as advances in purification and processing now routinely bring impurities down into the tens of mg/kg range and enable natural graphite to compete in applications that historically depended on synthetic graphite, while policymakers increasingly favour lower-carbon, non-foreign supply in response to ESG and critical-minerals initiatives in North America and Europe. Management of the Company believes that the unique Albany material has the potential to target high-value specialized niches where purified natural material can substitute for synthetic graphite, particularly in nuclear-grade applications, premium lithium-ion battery anodes and specialty high-temperature components, markets which together are expected to require on the order of 100,000-200,000 tonnes per year of purified natural high-purity graphite over the next 15-20 years. Management believes this positions Albany to become a premier Canadian supplier of purified natural ultra-high-purity graphite into these specialty markets. This will decrease Canada's reliance on foreign sources and enhance Canada's security of supply in areas critical to our national defence as well as key strategic sectors.