Westwater Successfully Produces Battery Ready Graphite

CENTENNIAL, Colo., Sept. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Westwater Resources, Inc. (“Westwater,” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: WWR), an energy materials development company, is pleased to announce that it has successfully produced more than 4 kilograms of its Purified Micronized Graphite (“PMG”). This Made-in-the-USA product is used as a conductivity enhancement material for rechargeable lithium ion batteries, non-rechargeable lithium batteries, alkaline power cells and lead acid battery applications.

Electrical performance testing by an independent lab has confirmed that Westwater’s PMG performs as well as expected. Samples of PMG are presently being tested by two potential customers. Discussions with additional potential customers are underway, with dozens of non-disclosure agreements in place to facilitate further work should it be warranted.

“Our ability to produce battery grade graphite products is confirmed with these lab scale tests,” said Christopher Jones, President and CEO of Westwater Resources. “With the large potential markets for PMG across the battery spectrum, and our success at this stage of our development, we can affirm that we are on schedule for commercial production in a little over two years as our business plan describes. This includes constructing a processing facility that purifies readily available graphite concentrates to 99.95% pure carbon. The proposed construction is planned for 2020 based upon pilot-plant operating data developed in 2019 and using industry standard processes.”

Mr. Jones added: “As the only US graphite company targeting all major commercial battery types for our products, we are truly unique in the domestic energy storage market. It is this meaningful advantage that is leading us to develop the Coosa Graphite mine in Alabama (planned for start-up 2026) on its 41,900 acre mineral-rights holdings that can serve as a hedge against future feedstock costs. Furthermore, the Coosa Graphite mine’s close proximity to the leading automobile manufacturers adds additional strategic benefits in sourcing product at minimal transportation costs.”

PMG, branded as “ULTRA-PMG”, is WWR’s first advanced battery product and has been produced in sizes from 5 to 45 microns, making it compatible with a wide variety of battery types given the electrical performance it has demonstrated. This is the first of three battery ready graphite products WWR intends to manufacture. More information on performance tests and our battery graphite business can be found at www.WestwaterResources.net.

Westwater Resources is working to develop a domestic battery graphite business as its first priority, as well as explore for lithium in the western United States. WWR also holds a portfolio of uranium production and exploration properties in Texas and New Mexico.

About Westwater Resources
WWR is focused on developing energy-related materials. The Company’s battery materials projects include the Coosa Graphite Project, located across 41,900 acres (17,000 ha) in east-central Alabama, and lithium mineral properties in three prospective lithium brine basins in Nevada and Utah. WWR’s uranium projects are located in Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, the Company has two licensed and currently idled uranium processing facilities and approximately 11,000 acres (4,400 ha) of prospective in-situ recovery uranium projects. In New Mexico, the Company controls mineral rights encompassing approximately 188,700 acres (76,394 ha) in the prolific Grants Mineral Belt, which is one of the largest concentrations of sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world. Incorporated in 1977 as Uranium Resources, Inc., WWR also owns an extensive uranium information database of historic drill hole logs, assay certificates, maps and technical reports for the Western United States. For more information, visit www.westwaterresources.net.

Cautionary Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” and other similar words. All statements addressing events or developments that WWR expects or anticipates will occur in the future, including but not limited to statements relating to the Company’s growth, developments at the Company’s projects, the future production of graphite, including on a pilot scale, and future sales of graphite, including as a first mover for key components of electrical storage devices, and the Company’s liquidity and cash demands, including future capital markets financing and disposition activities, are forward-looking statements. Because they are forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and uncertainties. These risk factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, (a) the Company’s ability to successfully integrate Alabama Graphite Corporation’s business into its own, and the risk that additional analysis of the Coosa Graphite Project may result in revisions to the findings of WWR’s initial optimization study; (b) the Company’s ability to raise additional capital in the future; (c) spot price and long-term contract price of graphite, uranium and lithium; (d) risks associated with our domestic operations; (e) operating conditions at the Company’s projects; (f) government and tribal regulation of the graphite industry, uranium industry, the lithium industry, and the power industry; (g) world-wide graphite, uranium and lithium supply and demand, including the supply and demand for lithium-based batteries; (h) maintaining sufficient financial assurance in the form of sufficiently collateralized surety instruments; (i) unanticipated geological, processing, regulatory and legal or other problems the Company may encounter in the jurisdictions where the Company operates or intends to operate, including in Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada; (j) the ability of the Company to enter into and successfully close acquisitions or other material transactions; (k) the results of the Company’s lithium brine exploration activities at the Columbus Basin, Railroad Valley, and Sal Rica projects, and the possibility that future exploration results may be materially less promising than initial exploration result; (I) any graphite, lithium or uranium discoveries not being in high-enough concentration to make it economic to extract the metals; (m) currently pending or new litigation or arbitration; and (n) other factors which are more fully described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of the Company’s underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue reliance should not be placed on the Company’s forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. The results of the initial optimization study are preliminary in nature and subject to revision following WWR’s further analysis of the Coosa project.