Significant Increase In Mineral Resources & Positive PEA Results BamaStar Project

VANCOUVER - South Star Battery Metals Corp.  reported on the NI 43-101 PEA 1 for the BamaStar Graphite Project in Alabama. South Star is developing a vertically integrated USA battery anode material strategy to supply the expanding worldwide lithium-ion battery (LiB), fuel cell, defense and industrial graphite markets.

The BamaStar Project will consist of a graphite mine and concentrate processing facility in Coosa County, AL, as well as a value-add plant proposed in Mobile, AL for upgrading and transforming the graphite concentrates precursor. The proposed value-add plant is strategically located near the port and intermodal logistics facilities, and it will receive natural flake graphite (NFG) concentrates from both BamaStar and South Star's flagship Santa Cruz Graphite Mine in northeastern Brazil's Bahia state, which is currently commissioned and ramping-up into commercial production. Santa Cruz is the first new graphite operation to go into production in the Americas this century.

Richard Pearce, President and CEO, said, " We are pleased to announce these exciting positive PEA results and encouraging economics for BamaStar. The results indicate the potential for a vertically integrated solution in the near-term for graphite concentrates and value-add production in the contiguous United States in the very heart of the southeast defense, aerospace and electric vehicle corridor where the material is urgently needed. South Star has scalable, diversified portfolio of graphite mines and production facilities in Tier 1 jurisdictions to minimize production risk at a crucial moment for the critical metals sectors in the West. Santa Cruz is ramping up Phase 1 operations and is fully licensed to expand production to 50,000 tpy of concentrates. BamaStar is a past producing graphite mine, with a clear path to restarting, that we are pushing hard to deliver concentrates integrated with value-add products by 2027. We believe our phased, modular approach is financeable, permittable, profitable and scalable at a time when the markets require additional materials and are looking for a stronger, more diversified supply chain of critical materials. Both our projects have proven their potential economic viability and their technical suitability for LiBs and other value-add applications essential to defense, energy storage and the energy transition. South Star is proud of its accomplishments at Santa Cruz as the first new graphite producer in the Americas since 1996. Our team is executing the Company's strategic plan of bringing vertically integrated, phased, modular production in the Americas of midstream and downstream products in a disciplined, technically viable and profitable business plan with a go-to market commercial strategy."