American Resources Corporation's ReElement Technologies Announces Successful Execution and Closing of Bond Purchase Agreement for $150 Million of Kentucky Industrial Building Revenue Bonds for its Kentucky Lithium Refinery

$150 million Tax-Exempt, Industrial Building Revenue Bonds will fund the development and operational commissioning of the United States' first-of-its-kind lithium processing and refining facility in Knott County, Kentucky

Bond Purchase Agreement was executed with Hilltop Securities Inc. who acted as sole-underwriter for the bond offering

FISHERS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / March 28, 2024 / American Resources Corporation's (NASDAQ:AREC) ("American Resources" or the "Company") subsidiary, ReElement Technologies Corporation ("ReElement"), a leading provider of high-performance refining capacity of rare earth and critical battery elements, today announced that it has successfully executed and closed a Bond Purchase Agreement with Hilltop Securities Inc. for $150,000,000 principal amount of Kentucky Industrial Building Revenue Bonds, Series 2024, for the Company's Kentucky Lithium LLC ("KYL") complex located near the town of Kite, Kentucky.

As previously stated, the Company's Knott County, Kentucky Lithium refining facility is being designed with an initial capacity to produce 15,000 metric ton per annum of either battery-grade lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃) and/or lithium hydroxide (LiOH) and with the ability to modularly increase capacity beyond the initial build. The KYL facility and technology also corresponds with the Company's recently announced milestone of producing ultra-pure (99.96%), battery-grade Li₂CO₃ from hard rock, spodumene bearing pegmatite ore utilizing its patented multi-modal chromatography technology at commercial scale. Some additional key attributes of the facility are:

1. Low Carbon Footprint - The initial life cycle analysis puts the KYL facility as one of the lowest, if not the lowest, carbon footprint commercial lithium purification and refining facilities in the world by combining ReElement's low footprint, low energy chromatographic separation and purification technology within a broader hydrometallurgical process whereby utilizing less chemicals then traditional solvent-based metallurgical processes, while also combining with solar energy and battery storage for a sustainable and stable energy source;
2. Brownfield Redevelopment - The facility is being built on a prior coal mining site reutilizing existing infrastructure and land reducing the overall impact on the environment while also reducing build time to startup;
3. Coal industry Workforce Redevelopment - The facility will source team members from the coal industry leveraging a highly skilled workforce with raw material commodity processing experience while expanding skill sets to operate within the energy transition industry and run the Kentucky Lithium facility. The facility is estimated to initially support approximately 113 well-paying jobs in the community; and
4. IRA Compliance - The initial analysis and calculations show that ultra-pure Li₂CO₃ and LiOH produced from the facility will meet IRA compliance for the growing domestic battery industry.

Kirk Taylor, CFO of American Resources Corporation commented, "This is another tremendous milestone for our Company as we continue to put the necessary pieces in place to execute on our mission of deploying and scaling the most efficient critical mineral refining platform in the world. This is another monumental moment for our ReElement Technologies division and for our country. The planned transformation of our Knott County facility enables us to utilize controlled land, resources, infrastructure and a skilled workforce to quickly meet the needs of the rapidly growing energy storage market along with utilizing our groundbreaking refining process to produce ultra-pure, battery-grade products in an environmentally-safe and low cost process. We expect our Kentucky Lithium facility to support over 100 well-paying jobs once fully operational in this exciting new energy market. This region of the country is well positioned geographically within the developing ‘battery belt' and comes with a longstanding history of pride and knowhow in the raw material, commodity processing industry. We applaud the Knott County, Kentucky leadership for sharing in our vision in how to execute on our nation's energy transition goals and there is no better example of how we can efficiently accomplish this than our Kentucky Lithium project. We also appreciate working with Hilltop Securities and their exceptional execution throughout this process. We look forward to communicating further milestones for this project as well as others within our pipeline."