The United States Department of Defense Awards Multi-Million-Dollar Grant to South Star Battery Metals to Support the Accelerated Expansion of U.S. Domestic Battery Graphite Production Within the Contiguous United States of America

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 29, 2023 / South Star Battery Metals Corp. ("South Star" or the "Company") (TSXV:STS)(OTCQB:STSBF), is pleased to announce that it has received a US$3.2 million grant (equaling approximately CA$4.4 million) from the Department of Defense ("DoD") under the Defense Production Act ("DPA") Title III authorities utilizing funds appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act, to advance a National Instrument 43-101 Feasibility Study ("FS") for the BamaStar Graphite Project, South Star's flagship graphite project in the USA, located in central Alabama. The FS will also incorporate a vertically integrated lithium-ion ("Li-ion") battery-graphite anode manufacturing facility in the southeast corridor of the United States. The FS will cover all aspects of the planned BamaStar graphite mine from upstream mining operations to the downstream manufacturing of finished commercial battery-ready graphite products, while detailing all important and essential related information, including operational, financial, commercial graphite product performance data, and environmental, social and governance criteria. South Star's planned battery-graphite products will include a broad range of products from coated spherical purified graphite ("CSPG") active anode materials for Li-ion battery applications to conductivity-enhancement products for use in all major primary (i.e., non-rechargeable) and secondary (i.e., rechargeable) battery chemistries.

South Star is deeply committed to rapidly accelerating BamaStar's downstream commercial battery-graphite manufacturing facility in the southeast corridor of the U.S. Given the extraordinary global demand for Li-ion battery-graphite anode materials and due to the complete lack of U.S. manufacturing capacity, the Company's management believes in the criticality of addressing the United States' urgent need to have integrated, safe-sourced, domestic graphite production capability at commercial scale in the most efficient, cost-effective and shortest timeframe possible. The company views the present challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical environments as a significant and increasing risk to the U.S. and its allies, in terms of both national and energy security.